Taiwan Tourism Research Articles

Study on cluster analysis characteristics and classification capabilities — a case study of satisfaction regarding hotels and bed & breakfasts of Chinese tourists in Taiwan

AbstractCluster analysis is a multivariate statistical analysis method for the classification of samples based on the principle of “like attracts like”. It requires reasonable classification according to the characteristics in a reasonable manner, and without any mode for reference, in other words, classification is implemented without any prior knowledge. It has been applied in many aspects. In this paper, four cluster analysis methods are used to study the questionnaire data of Chinese tourists’ satisfaction regarding Taiwan’s hotels and Bed & Breakfasts, (B&Bs). First, this study applied principal component analysis in reducing questionnaire variables, and then gray relational analysis to assess the overall satisfaction performance. By sorting the overall satisfaction performance values, the performance values combined with the principle components were used as the testing sample data. Afterwards, the samples were categorized into three categories and four categories according to performance value. The...

北京与台湾乡村旅游创意提升发展比较研究

以文化创意产业的思维与生产模式融入乡村旅游的融合发展，是提升乡村旅游品质与效益的基本方向之一。台湾乡村旅游的发展已积累了一定的经验，文化创意价值体现较为充分。通过对比研究发现，北京乡村旅游的创意提升与台湾存在文化、市场、政策等方面的显著差异。大陆的优势在于深厚多元的文化、快速成长的市场和创意阶层，以及政府力量等方面，但在土地政策、农户的意识和素质、资本力量等方面有局限。北京一方面应借鉴台湾地区的发展经验，另一方面更应发挥自身优势走出新的道路来。 The development of rural tourism, which applied the thinking and the mode of production of the cultural creative industry, is one of the basic directions that can improve the quality and efficiency of rural tourism. The development of rural tourism in Taiwan has accumulated some experience; cultural and creative value is more fully reflected. Through the comparative study, Beijing and Taiwan have different policy, culture, resources and other conditions in the creative promotion development of rural tourism. The advantages of mainland lie in the deep cultural diversity, the rapid growth of the market and the creative class, as well as government forces, but there are lim-itations in the land policy, the consciousness and quality of the farmers, and capital strength, etc. Beijing should learn from the experience of the development of the Taiwan area, on the other hand should give full play to its advantages to get out new roads.

A Discussion on the Naming of Mass Rapid Transit Systems: Metros in Taiwan

Mass Rapid Transit systems are a fast and efficient way of transportation when visiting cities around the world. Although it is generally recognized that words such as metro or subway would direct tourists to the nearest station, the words have only a limited use in Taiwan. This research shows that the Taiwanese are more used to the term MRT, which is not easily recognized by foreigners. By looking into etymology and investigating the academic wordlists and news reports, it is found that tourists in Taiwan might have a problem communicating their intention of getting direction to a metro station. The same is true for the Taiwanese people on tour to other countries—they will have a hard time finding the metro station by asking for the MRT station. The research suggests that the government should strongly consider properly naming the metro systems in Taiwan and to educate the youngsters in Taiwan on the usage of the words metro and subway.

Dynamic Inter-Relationship Among International Tourism, Economic Growth, and Energy Consumption in Taiwan

Dynamic Inter-Relationship Among International Tourism, Economic Growth, and Energy Consumption in Taiwan

Applying Difference in Difference Method to Value Policy Effect on Hotel Industry

This study applies Difference in Difference (DiD) method to evaluate the policy effect on hotel industry. This study uses the International Tourism Hotels (ITHs) in Taiwan as the subjects. The operational and managerial data of ITHs are collected from the reports by Taiwan Tourism Bureau. The data contained 70 hotel units from year 2005 to 2010. In 2008, the government relaxed the entrance limitation for the tourists from China and the number of inbound visitors has been increasing tremendously. However, our research results indicate that the open policy for visitors from China have no significant positive effect on the profitability of ITHs. Tourism policies can lead to unexpected results to different tourism industry with different operational scale, which should be taken into consideration when making business strategies or governmental policies.

A Novel Evaluation Approach for Tourist Choice of Destination Based on Grey Relation Analysis

The decision-making process of choosing an ideal tourism destination is influenced by a number of psychological and nonpsychological variables. Tourists need a method to quickly and easily select a suitable destination. Driven by this practical decision issue, a novel approach of tourist destination evaluation, grey relation analysis (GRA), is developed and applied to the ranking evaluation of Taiwan tourism destinations in China. In the evaluating process, we apply entropy to calculate the weight of each index, which is a more objective method of calculating weights. The results of the study indicate that although the same size is small and the distribution of data is unknown, GRA can still be successfully used in evaluating tourist destinations. In addition, we compare the GRA results with the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and show that more accurate ranking results can be obtained.

Tourism strategy development and facilitation of integrative processes among brand equity, marketing and motivation

With the absence of heavy industry and pollution from intense commercial development, Kinmen is a significant source of additional value for tourism in Taiwan. This calls for in-depth studies on tourism marketing, brand equity and travel motivation in Kinmen. This study attempts to identify the important attributes of Kinmen tourism and extend the related literature on marketing strategy, brand equity and travel motivation by employing a combination of the fuzzy Delphi method (FDM), decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and analytic network process (ANP) approaches to demonstrate the interactions and relations among critical criteria. The FDM identified the critical attributes, which were used in DEMATEL analysis to demonstrate that brand equity has direct and indirect influences on marketing strategy and travel motivation. The use of the ANP with global weighting further reveals that travel intention is the most critical element of Kinmen tourism.

Community sustainability and resilience: similarities, differences and indicators

ABSTRACTSustainability has been a core conceptual framework for community development since the approach was popularized in 1987, although in its essence it reflects a long history of environmental conservation reactions to industrialization. Resilience, as a framework for understanding and approaching community development, emerged more gradually out of ecological studies in the 1980s, but has only recently, since the mid-2000s, emerged as a focus of public interest as a way of responding and adapting to the planet's growing anthropogenic changes. For many, sustainability and resilience are slightly nuanced perspectives on the same phenomenon. For others, however, there are distinct differences between them, with sustainability's conservation goals being in opposition to the adaptation goals of resilience. Two major reasons for these confusions are (1) both concepts are defined and used in many different ways to achieve a variety of political goals that may not reflect their core definitions, and (2) both concepts share similar goals and some common approaches, such as a focus on climate change and seeking a balance between humans and nature. Returning to the core definitions of conservation and adaptation helps to clarify their similarities and differences, as well as to articulate indicators for understanding how each applies to community tourism development. Indicators from research in rural Taiwan tourism communities were therefore based on responses to the questions: What does the community want to conserve and how do they want to do it (sustainability)? What do they want to change and how do they want to do it (resilience)? Preliminary results suggest that the new ideal community is the one that is both sustainable and resilient.

Analysis of Tourist Flow from the US to Taiwan

It is important for Taiwanese policy makers to understand how economic factors affect US tourists’ decision to travel to Taiwan. For the long-run analysis, Johansen’s cointegration test reveals that three cointegration vectors exist among the model variables, indicating a long-run relationship. To conduct a short-run analysis, this paper employs vector auto regression (VAR) to estimate the responses of US tourists in Taiwan to the shocks of changes to personal disposable income, cost of living, and substitute price. The short-run equilibrium adjustment processes are discussed in terms of generalized impulse response. The results show an immediate and significant response of changes in tourist arrivals to their own impacts, changes in the cost of living, and changes in the substitute price. In addition, the price, income, and cross-elasticity of tourism demand are all positive at the beginning of the responses, implying that the tourism products can be attributed to normal and substitute goods.

Factors influencing Chinese tourists’ intentions to use the Taiwan Medical Travel App

Global economic progress has resulted in the rapid development of transportation, finance, and tourism. Consequently, medical tourism has emerged as a new and booming market. Hospitals in Taiwan have excellent medical quality and highly-ranked information technology. The geographical, cultural, and linguistic proximity between Taiwan and Mainland China further enhances the appeal of medical tourism in Taiwan as an option for patients from China. Thus, the Taiwanese government has actively modified and improved various aspects of its tourism infrastructure, such as visa regulations, marketing policies, and technologies, to attract medical tourists. One important technology marketing method in its arsenal is the Taiwan Medical Travel App (TMT App), which can be downloaded to mobile devices. The TMT App focuses on promoting Taiwan’s medical tourism. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of the TMT App and the usage intention of Chinese patients have not been evaluated. This study proposes a research model based on a literature review to explore the factors that influence Chinese patients’ intention to use the TMT App. The research model is then validated using questionnaires and statistical analyses. The results can be used as a reference to enhance customers’ intention to use the TMT App and to improve this and other similar Apps.

Cointegration analysis of tourism demand by Mainland China in Taiwan and stock investment strategy

Mainland China is the most important source of tourism for Taiwan in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes in the long-run demand for tourism in Taiwan by Mainland China. Using program trading and three different data sources, including the stock prices of Regent Taipei (2707), weighted index of the tourism sector (2700) and CSI ETF (0061), we find support for our hypotheses. That is, Taiwan’s tourism market does not fulfil the conditions of a strong-form efficient market hypothesis. Also, positive feedback trading does exit in Taiwan’s tourism market.

Using fuzzy gap analysis to measure service quality of medical tourism in Taiwan.

The purpose of this paper is intended to create a model to measure quality of service, using fuzzy linguistics to analyze the quality of service of medical tourism in Taiwan so as to find the direction for improvement of service quality in medical tourism. The study developed fuzzy questionnaires based on the characteristics of medical tourism quality of service in Taiwan. Questionnaires were delivered and recovered from February to April 2014, using random sampling according to the proportion of medical tourism companies in each region, and 150 effective samples were obtained. The critical quality of service level is found through the fuzzy gap analysis using questionnaires examining expectations and perceptions of customers, as the direction for continuous improvement. From the study, the primary five critical service items that improve the quality of service for medical tourism in Taiwan include, in order: the capability of the service provider to provide committed medical tourism services reliably and accurately, facility service providers in conjunction with the services provided, the cordial and polite attitude of the service provider eliciting a sense of trust from the customer, professional ability of medical (nursing) personnel in hospital and reliability of service provider. The contribution of this study is to create a fuzzy gap analysis to assess the performance of medical tourism service quality, identify key quality characteristics and provide a direction for improvement and development for medical tourism service quality in Taiwan.

The influence of recreation experience and environmental attitude on the environmentally responsible behavior of community-based tourists in Taiwan

This study examines the relationships between recreation experience, environmental attitude, and the general and site-specific environmentally responsible behavior of tourists at Taomi and Smangus in Taiwan. The first is an agriculturally based community and the second home to one of Taiwan's ethnic minorities. A total of 862 usable questionnaires (432 for Taomi and 430 for Smangus) were collected in this study. The empirical results indicate that recreation experience is positively and significantly related to environmental attitudes among tourists. Environmental attitudes are also positively and significantly related to general and site-specific tourist behaviors and mediate the relationship between recreation experience and environmentally responsible behavior. The paper contributes to the literature by examining the structural linear relationships between recreation experience, environmental attitudes, and environmentally responsible behavior. This study suggests that tourism destination providers should provide pro-environmental activities, ecotourism experiences, and interpretations of environmental issues to enhance tourists' environmental attitude and general and site-specific environmentally responsible behavior, thereby potentially reducing the adverse environmental effect produced by tourists during daily life and at tourism destinations. Reducing the adverse environmental effect of tourism destinations will benefit the development of sustainable community-based tourism.

The Impact of the Chinese Tourism Market on Taiwan Residents’ Attitudes

ABSTRACTAlthough the development of Chinese tourists to Taiwan is a relatively recent phenomenon, China has quickly become a major tourist-generating market in Taiwan. The study aimed to investigate Taiwan residents’ perceptions of tourism impacts from the largest inbound tourism market of Chinese tourists to Taiwan, and their attitudes toward the development of the Chinese tourism market, the largest source of tourism in Taiwan’s inbound tourism market. This study employed questionnaires to acquire data from Taiwan residents using a convenience sampling method. The results showed that respondents with different backgrounds perceived different tourism quality impacts, overall tourism impacts, and attitudes toward tourism development of the inbound tourism market. Respondents’ attitudes toward tourism development were influenced by their perceptions of tourism quality impacts and overall tourism impacts. The perception of overall tourism impact is a significant predicator of attitude toward tourism development. Based on the study findings, the study provides suggestions for future development of the Chinese inbound tourism market and for future studies.

Psychological contract fulfillment in the hotel workplace: Empowering leadership, knowledge exchange, and service performance

This study developed and tested a group-level model involving empowering leadership, psychological contract fulfillment, knowledge exchange, and service performance. In 28 Taiwan's tourism hotels, data stem from 56 hotel departments and comprise 258 employees was used to test the research hypotheses through structural equation model. We found that, as anticipated, empowering leadership was positively related to psychological contract fulfillment and knowledge exchange; psychological contract fulfillment was positively related to knowledge exchange and service performance; and knowledge exchange was positively related to service performance. This study highlighted that psychological contract fulfillment partially mediated the relationship between empowering leadership and knowledge exchange; knowledge exchange fully mediated the relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and service performance. Theoretical and practice implications, limitations, and suggestions for future were presented.

Study on customer relationship management activities in Taiwan tourism factories

Taiwanese consumers have been increasingly attaching importance to tourist activities due to the year-by-year growth of the Taiwanese tourism market and the rise of the national income. In recent years, the Government has actively assisted many unique manufacturing industries that possess rich historical and cultural connotations to develop and transform into a diversified tourist factory industry via innovative and differentiated theme designs. This research was conducted from March to April 2013 using 38 effective questionnaires through a questionnaire survey method. Statistical methods were used to analyse the relevant tourist industry market orientation, organisational learning, business strategy, customer relationship management (CRM) and operational performance. The research results indicate that the more the CRM activities performed, the more the positive effect on operating performance. The higher the extent of market orientation and organisational learning, the more significant the positive customer relationships. Thus, a tourist factory is able to promote CRM activities to achieve improved customer operating performance through market orientation, organisational learning, differentiated marketing and innovative differentiation strategy.

How travel agency reputation creates recommendation behavior

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of travel agency’s reputation on customer recommendation behavior by examining the mediating effects of customer-perceived functional and emotional value as well as the moderating effects of tour leader performance and customer flow experience in the travel agency sector. Design/methodology/approach – A statistical analysis of the collected questionnaires was computed based on the 463 usable responses from Taiwan tourists who joining the group package tours traveling to China. Structural equation modeling is the essential analysis methodology used to examine the hypothesized relationships among the variables. Findings – The analysis results confirm that reputation has positive effects on customers recommendation behaviors in which perceived functional and emotional value work as necessary mediating roles. Nevertheless, the effect of reputation through emotional value on customer recommendation behavior provides a much better explanation than through functional value in the model. In addition, regarding the variables of tour leader performance and customer flow experience in the model, only the tour leader performance is confirmed that moderates the relationships among reputation, perceived value, and customer recommendation behavior. According to the findings, managerial implications are discussed as well. Originality/value – This study develops a conceptual stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model that, reflecting the mediating role of perceived value and the moderating role of tour leader performance, indicates the effect of reputation on customer recommendation behavior.

A Study of Marine Sport Tourism Development on Island – A Case Study of Jibei in Penghu, Taiwan

Marine sport tourism in Taiwan has become one of the popular intensive tours in recent years. However, related research has focused on the economic and social issues, which overlooks factors contributing to the successful development of sport tourism. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the success factors for the development of the island's marine-sport tourism using Jibei Island as an object for investigation. Through qualitative methods of investigation, we found that a successful development of marine-sport tourism for an island is attributes to: 1. the coupling of natural environment and a variety of water activities; 2. the infrastructures such as transportation of island; 3. the image of the island; and 4. the support from the government. The findings in this study not only provide local government with recommendations for the development of tourism industry, but also serve as references for relevant future research.

Does Tourism Development Bring Positive Benefit to Indigenous Tribe? Case by Dongpu in Taiwan

In digenous tourism in Taiwan in recent years has become a favorite way to in - depth travel, but in this development process, whether it is for the tribe to bring positive benefits? In this study, Dongpu tribe as object located at Nantou County, Taiwan, qualit ative research method for analysis. After analysis, this study has the following findings: From the research development of the Dongpu tribe hot spring resources, because the Government was used powerful development for Hans enterprises to enter directly, indigenous was unable to resist the Government, resulting in the tribal culture ceased to exist, to return to the previous tribal life environment has been very difficult. Highlight any tribal tourism development, require participation and programming of i ndigenous, and the Government's position should be on assistance and counseling role. Tribal tourism, however, is not always a negative impact, in terms of positive impact, but also infrastructure improvements in the area of Government pay more attention t o indigenous rights. The findings in this study not only provide government with recommendations for the development of indigenous tourism, but also serve as references for relevant future research.

The Feasibility of Technology-based Business Model for SMEs in Taiwan Tourism Industry

Aims: This study analyzes the feasibility of tourism business model created by an integrated telecom operator in Taiwan. This research analyze its model design logic at a strategic level and design elements of content at an operational level, hoping to help this case company analyzing their current design to make them fit for the future trend to capture the opportunities in travel market. Study Design: Case study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Taiwan, between May 2013 and April 2014. Methodology: In-depth interviews were adopted for this study. To obtain more comprehensive and accurate information, the interviewees included the top-level managers and executives. Results: This study use Business Model Canvas, which consists of nine basic building blocks, to analyze the feasibility of tourism business platform built by the case Company. The case company utilizes ICT technology and cooperates with domestic six major tourism industries to integrate Original Research Article Lee and Wu; BJEMT, 6(1): 50-60, 2015; Article no.BJEMT.2015.042 51 public and private sector resources to offer free abundant digital tourism information to travelers. Results indicate that the design logic is to associate with opportunity identification and enactment focus in streaming data integration to incorporate firm level strategic thinking, which takes into consideration the alignment of the organization’s resources (Fixed Line, Internet Access, Mobile, MOD, and Cloud) and provides six main services for travelers. It expects SMEs will spending in mobile ad and cloud service. This study also found the case company is significant weak in platform marketing to attract platform participants, both travel services providers and consumers. It needs to leverage social media to harness the platform effect for future rapid growth. Conclusion: Traditional relevant players in the travel market, from travel suppliers to travel intermediaries up to travel agents, have to adapt their business models to these fundamental changes in the travel industry.