Outdoor recreation in a Taiwanese national park: A Hakka ethnic group study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore factors of values, perceptions of crowding and service quality affecting Hakka people's behavioral intentions in the Toroko National Park in Taiwan. The Hakka ethnic group is a cultural group in Taiwan, composed of 14% of Taiwan population. In 2007–2008, the visitors to Taroko National Park, one of the most visited national parks on the eastern coast of Taiwan, were surveyed on-site. Overall, 315 usable questionnaires were obtained from the Taiwanese Hakka informants. The results showed that combined effects of values, crowding and service quality predicted behavioral intentions, and the model R-squares reached 0.73. In particular, the results revealed values were more important than crowding and service quality in predicting Taiwanese Hakka visitors’ behavioral intentions. The results indicated that values are an appropriate approach for modeling outdoor recreation and tourism behavior. The finding implications for outdoor recreation and tourism management were also provided. Management implicationsThe study provides findings for management of outdoor recreation and tourism in national parks:•Employing more Hakka language spoken staff in the national park for Hakka visitors to make comments and feedbacks, would improve Hakkas’ management service quality.•Providing a sense of “solitude” recreation opportunity such as using total visitation capacity control is critical to Hakka people's national park outdoor recreation experience.•Park managers not only need to understand visitors’ perception of service quality and crowding, but also need to know visitors’ values such as Taiwanese Hakka group's values.•The achievement values such as self-fulfillment, sense of accomplishment positively affect Hakka visitors’ behavioral intentions to national park.•Building cheerful, joyful or challenging atmosphere is important on Hakka visitors’ positive behavioral intentions to national park.