Night Markets in Taiwan

Conclusions and recommendations

Night Markets in Taiwan have become popular tourist attractions not only for local residents but for foreign tourists. We would like to know what factors caused consumers to select between night markets and their consumer behavior in night markets. And we are interested in locals and foreigners what factors influence their behavior differentiation. This research is helpful for government and street vendors in night markets, because the study purpose mainly for giving recommendations to governments to let them know what factors are important, maybe it is helpful to their policies direction about improving night markets, moreover, it could give tourism agents some general ideas of planning appropriate sightseeing spots for international tourists.  

According to our research results, sanitation in night markets is the major factor would determine consumers no matter locals or foreigners choose night market, vendors usually work in open space and there are limited sanitary facilities in night markets, so we suggest government agencies could establish a set of hygiene standards with monetary punishments for the sake of inspectors requesting vendors’ work place to keep a proper level, inspections should also keep frequent. And government should build sophisticated tap-water system to provide vendors or tourists cleaning food ingredients and hands. About the number of infrastructures, we think government agencies should add much more toilets and considering the demand of families with babies, in night markets also have enough Breastfeeding Room. In order to give consumers have a cosy stroll, good route planning is needed to evacuate excessive stream of people. In response to traffic issue in night nights, there should be much more shuttle buses for visitors like Tzu-Chiang Night Market in Kaohsiung Taiwan, and because of nearby night markets parking areas are under private management and expensive, government should also draw up regulatory programs about ample parking space. In terms of promoting night markets, local governments ought to give impetus to local characteristics by differentiation or diversification in night markets, more could employ advertising strategies like propagandizing through mass media, emphasizing night markets external appearance or holding characteristic activities in night markets. In the vicinity of night markets, government agencies could combine local communities to renovate night markets environment to promote whole expression. Personal habits and experience are significant factors would affect consumers, so we think that increasing affections towards night markets through developing markets features or offering better services to retain consumers. To fit in modern cities that never sleep, prolonging opening hours to late-night supper duration maybe is a good idea.