Tickets for balloon rides in Taiwan’s Kaohsiung sell out instantly

台灣高雄熱氣球門票瞬間售罄

More weekday tickets for tethered hot air balloon rides will soon be available


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A total of 700 tickets for tethered hot air balloon rides at the Love River in downtown Kaohsiung and in Tianliao District sold out in five minutes on Saturday (Sept. 2).

Tianliao District, an area well known for its mudstone badlands, is likely to be an especially photogenic backdrop for the rides. Kaohsiung’s tourism bureau planned the activity to run from Oct. 8 to Nov. 6, with openings for about 1,900 people.

Of the 1,900 tickets, 1,200 are reserved for group tours arranged by travel agencies, while 700 are for non-tour group visitors.

The online sales for the city’s first-ever tethered balloon rides attracted over 20,000 people when they began at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Within five minutes, all the available tickets had sold out, the bureau said in a press release on Sunday.

The bureau said that it was surprised by the demand and that more weekday tickets would soon become available.

It encouraged people who failed to secure tickets to visit anyway and take photos as well as savor the local delicacies.

Another highly expected tourism event, the National Day fireworks display, will take place at Kaohsiung Harbor's Penglai Pier at 8 p.m. on Oct. 10.