《TAIPEI TIMES》Daily groceries top plans for vouchers, Cathay poll shows

By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporter

A survey by Cathay Financial Holding Co （國泰金控） on how people planned to use their Triple Stimulus Vouchers found that 42 percent would buy daily groceries, the company said yesterday.

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Other top uses included department store spending （24.2 percent） and travel （14.6 percent）, while 6.3 percent of respondents would use them for dining and drinks, and less than 1 percent plan to use them for arts and culture activities, while 11.6 percent of respondents said they had not made up their minds, the survey found.

While travel was not a popular option, a clear majority of respondents （62.1 percent） said that they would consider spending more at hotels, given the subsidies offered by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the survey found.

A survey in April found that just 34.2 percent of respondents said that they would be encouraged by such subsidies, even though the poll found that consumers’ willingness to travel was rebounding as the COVID-19 threat to Taiwan appeared to be receding.

The ministry last month announced a NT$3.9 billion （US$131.91 million） program to encourage people to travel domestically — either as part of a tour group or individually — between July 1 and Oct. 31.

Each person in a tour group would receive NT$700 per day for accommodation, while individual travelers would get NT$1,000, although those visiting the nation’s outlying islands would receive more, it said.

Meanwhile, 37.5 percent of respondents expected the economic situation to improve in the next six months, down from 42 percent from last month’s poll, which might be attributed to the fact that COVID-19 pandemic is still going strong in many other nations, Cathay Financial said.

However, 33.1 percent would consider making big purchases over the next six months, a slight increase from the 31 percent last month, the poll found.

The poll was conducted from July 1 to July 7 among Cathay Financial’s clients, collecting 21,260 valid responses, the company said, without giving a margin of error.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES