Culture and vacation satisfaction: a study of Taiwanese tourists in South East Queensland

Abstract

Taiwan has been targeted as one Asian market with the potential to supply large numbers of tourists to Australia however, after a promising start in the first half of the 1990s growth in this market ceased. This paper examines the role of material culture in determining visitor satisfaction amongst Taiwanese tourists. One hundred and fifty Taiwanese tourists travelling on inclusive tours were surveyed in South East Queensland. The major findings were that most Taiwanese respondents believed that culture did not play a major role in determining their satisfaction levels and they expressed a high level of satisfaction with their visit. The implications of these findings are that, while Taiwanese culture is important to the Taiwanese visitor in a holiday situation, they are tolerant of cross-cultural differences and therefore do not evaluate their vacation based on these differences.