Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park turned a profit for the first time without subsidies in 2023, according to Director of the park Chen Yu-hsiu (陳玉秀). Chen made the comments during an interview with Rti released Friday.
Chen says that 2023 was the first year that the park was completely responsible for its own profits and losses without government assistance. She says the period during the COVID-19 pandemic was an especially challenging period for the park, which was barely able to pay its employees.
However, 2023 not only saw the highest level of visitors in the park’s history, more than eight million, but it also turned a profit of about NT$30 million (US$956,000). That’s a major increase compared to the pre-pandemic visitor count of about 6.7 million in 2019. December 2023 had the most visitors the park has seen in a single month, even more than when the park hosted the Lantern Festival last February.
The park is located at a former tobacco factory near downtown Taipei’s Xinyi and Songshan districts. It was converted into a cultural park in 2011, focused on creative industries. Chen says the park expects 2024 to bring in even more visitors due to the recent opening of the neighboring Taipei Dome complex, which includes a stadium and sprawling shopping center.
Although the park is now profitable, Chen says that it still has a public responsibility to support cultural and creative industries, and is not an entirely private operation. Chen says that while the park and the Taipei Dome may draw different crowds, the addition of people who discover the park while visiting the Dome will make the park feel fresh. Chen says that it is unclear exactly how the Dome will affect the Cultural Park’s long-term operations. Therefore, spaces within the park are only available for short-term rentals until it is clear how the business environment will develop.