Tourism Image and its Influence on Travel Intention to Taiwan: Perspective from Chinese City Residents

• Main Authors: Chun-Wei Hsu, 許峻瑋
• Other Authors: Chia-Yu Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/62419713687512575386

碩士 === 世新大學 === 觀光學研究所(含碩專班) === 98 === Countries around the world have attached great importance to tourism industry in recent years. This has initiated a chain reaction which results in tourism being identified as the leading source of foreign exchange revenues in many countries. Taiwan, for its part, has followed suit by making and implementing comprehensive development plans for its tourism industry over the past few years. With cross-strait relations heading toward opening-up, Taiwan is seeing increasing interactions with Mainland China. Now it is time for Taiwan to contemplate on its key agenda with respect to tourism, namely how to generate maximum profits out of Mainland Chinese tourists through the use of appropriate, effective tourism marketing and promotion strategies. Tourism studies have identified tourism destination image as one of the key factors in determining visit intention among tourists. Tourism destination image is also an important basis on which travel agencies develop marketing strategies and decide on market positioning. This thesis aims to investigate, though the means of a survey, the tourism image of Taiwan as perceived by a group of Mainland China city residents who have never been to Taiwan and its influence on their intention to visit Taiwan. The target population of the survey covers residents of three municipalities in Mainland China: Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai. The survey, conducted in the period between March 25 and May 15, 2009, eventually produced an effective sample size of 583. Findings in the study suggest that as far as the tourism image is concerned, Taiwan conjures up positive images of “travel infrastructure” and “overall environment” in the minds of higher-income Chinese city residents surveyed, whereas for Chinese senior citizens surveyed, Taiwan is synonymous with “abundant natural resources” and “cultural assets.” All people surveyed, especially those holding postgraduate or higher educational credentials, expressed a strong intention to visit Taiwan. Such intention is reinforced with their positive tourism images of Taiwan such as “travel infrastructure” and “abundant natural resources.” This thesis concludes with suggestions for tourism management and future research.