Cost/Quality
Chapter 5 Conclusion and Implications
5.4 Policy Implications
As all data has now been recorded and analyzed, this section is intended to provide potential suggestions for Taiwan’s tourism bureau to consider. When using this information, the goal is to help increase tourism inflow from North America and Europe by pinpointing their tourist specific travel needs and habits. The bureau can examine all of the findings of this research and craft new ideas for policy and marketing strategies. At the same time, The security of Taiwan should be more heavily advertised, but this should be done subtly.
This feature of Taiwan could be used during promotional videos or with marketing strategies. It should be a part of the message when advertising, but not the entire message.
Since this was the largest determinant for tourists completing the survey, it should in some fashion be used in policy change or advertising strategy initiatives.
Food safety should also be addressed in future marketing endeavors, as it seemed many travelers came here based off word of mouth or because they knew someone who lives or have lived here. Therefore, the traveler might be alerted to the fact that Taiwan has had some food issues in its recent past, with problems such as plasticizer in its bottled beverages, tainted starch, counterfeit olive oil, and a food oil scandal that revealed many restaurants and food stalls were unknowingly using old, reused oil produced in China.
While progress has been made by creating an independent body to ensure food safety standards are progressing (Ferry 2015), tourists (and the general public) cannot independently determine if food is safe to eat. Tourists want to know if the food they consume is safe. Two steps could be taken as a start to ensure customers know they are receiving quality food. First, food bought at a grocery store that needs to be regulated could have a seal on the product in Chinese and English that shows quality assurance. Second, restaurants and food stalls should be monitored on a regular basis by inspectors. The inspectors can then give the businesses a simple alphabetical or numerical rating that is placed at the front of the store or in the window that easily displays that restaurant’s food safety and cleanliness score.
In addition to displaying food safety scores, the bureau could introduce food contests.
Foreigners could be selected from abroad after applying to a contest to come to Taiwan
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and take photographs of food using their unique photography styles. During the interview with the German office representative of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, she noted that they advertise Taiwan cuisine to the European market. To promote further, they could bring the contestants to Taiwan to go around the island taking pictures of all the diverse foods the island has to offer. The contest could focus on particular food venues the bureau would like to promote, and also let the contestants find food that they deem interesting and unique. As youth travelers use the newest forms of technology and media, the results of the winning pictures and videos could then be promoted on social media sites such as Instagram, Twitter, snapchat, Facebook, and others for word of mouth advertising to the younger target market.Additionally, food critics from North American and European countries could be invited to Taiwan to go to some of the countries night markets, most famous restaurants, and cultural cuisine establishments where they can review their meals while in the country.
Then when they have returned to their home country, articles can be written promoting the uniqueness and novelty of the night market food, the famous restaurants, and their chefs regarding their cooking skills. This will let readers know of Taiwan’s unique culinary cuisine on offer and entice them to visit.
Taiwan’s tourism bureau could hold a contest where the winner will come to the island for a set period of time to film and document their travels around Taiwan. The bureau can set up an itinerary of places, people, and things they should see, but also give them some personal time to explore the island to let the people see through their own perspective. This will enable potential visitors to see Taiwan in a perspective more akin to their own. This contest could be similar to the Tourism Australia television show “The Best Job in the World”. This show could be used as a framework, and then the bureau could hire a television crew and creative team to give Taiwan’s version its own perspective.
The weather in Taiwan is a departure from North American and European climates. These two regions are not as acclimated to the humid hot summers nor the wet cold winters. Many visitors did not expect such extreme weather when arriving. The tourism website could produce a weather section that includes a weather calendar. This calendar could include a seven-day forecast for incoming travelers. Additionally, a calendar for the typhoon season
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and any potential typhoons that might make landfall to the island could be included. For each major city, a yearly weather gauge displaying average weather depending on the season could be developed. This would give tourists a better understanding of when it would be appropriate for them to travel to Taiwan.As stated in the data collection section, trains where the most important form of travel once travelers arrived. More investment should be put into advertising train travel for the scenic beauty and landscapes they traverse through. As youth tourists enjoy discovering new locations, having scenic trains would be something that increases youth travelers’
satisfaction rates while in Taiwan. To enjoy these trains, customers much purchase tickets, but this is a little harder for a tourist to accomplish.
Computers located at 711, Family Mart, High Life, and OK Mart all use computer terminals where Taiwanese citizens can conveniently pay bills, buy concert tickets, add money to accounts, and even purchase High Speed Rail, slow train, and bus tickets. Unfortunately, these machines are programmed primarily in Chinese, and navigating its user interface is not very streamlined. The computer systems could introduce one of the options on the screen to be shown as “English Options”. These options would be more limited than what a native resident would have access to, could include all the necessities that a traveler might desire. It could include features where, through a streamlined, easy to use interface, travelers can quickly purchase HSR tickets, slow train tickets, and bus tickets. In addition to tickets, perhaps users can could for a taxi any time of the day. This can be done as many travelers keep the hotel address or address of where they want to go on hand. And they can also use google maps to notify the driver of where to go. Finally, refilling SIM cards for mobile phones with calling minutes and mobile data packages can be done at the terminal, and the receipt could be handed to a cashier for purchase.
Motorcycles and scooters seemed to be of little importance to tourists, though this might be because to rent them, you need to obtain a Taiwan scooter license. This paper proposes an alternative to modify the current inability for travels to rent scooters. Currently, tourists go outside of major cites to more rural areas to rent scooters. The owners of these establishments are more relaxed when it comes to who is legally allowed to rent them.
There would be stipulations, however. For instance, you would have to have a valid driver’s
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license or motorcycle license from your home country to rent a scooter. Also, it would be forbidden to drive in any major city because traffic culture is most likely different than the traveler’s own country. The tourist renting the scooter could receive a tutorial of the basics of riding a scooter. Scooters would also be limited to no higher than 125cc, as that is the normal license given when applying for a license by a Taiwanese resident.The Taiwanese tourism bureau should put more emphasis on advertising and catering to youth travelers. As previously stated, they tend to travel for longer periods of time, spend more money, and are not limited by specific travel times, such as during holidays. Youth tourists also tend to put a special importance to being more social during their travels. This can help spread information by word of mouth about their positive experience in Taiwan to other friends and on social media.
Road signs in Taipei and Taipei city are fairly easy to navigate. This is because they use a Romanization system called pinyin. As you venture farther away from Taipei, the road signs often switch to a different system called Wade-Giles. This can make it harder for a tourist to get to their intended destination because travel guides and travel sites predominantly use the pinyin system. As there are many different methods of Romanization, it should be considered by the bureau to change all signs to the pinyin system. This would make it easier for travelers find their travel destination.
The Taoyuan International airport has very few pamphlets and fliers that advertise what to do while in Taiwan. Upon arrival, tourists coming out of the exit gate could go to a large display that includes QR codes that advertise some of Taiwan’s most famous sites, landmarks, night markets, and restaurants, with a picture of the landmark and a small description included. Customers could then use their smartphones or other electronic devices to obtain more data using the QR codes. Once the QR is activated it could provide additional details about the destination. It could also include the phone number, hours of operation, address, and a maps feature so it will be easier for the tourist to get to the location. Additionally, to reduce the amount of pamphlets needed to advertise so many different destinations, only one pamphlet style would need to be produced and placed at the advertising booth.
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Taiwan should also consider creating a section in its tourism bureau for gay travel. It can advertise how gay friendly Taiwan is and try and entice more people to come to what is the largest yearly gay pride parade in Asia.5.5. Limitations
The results yielded from this survey were limited in scope. The two main limitations are that the survey only focuses on quantifying results for are North American and European tourists with an age range of 20-30 years of age, thus limiting the generalizability (or external validity) of the survey results. The older population was much less willing to take part in such a lengthy questionnaire. As such, modification of the survey would be needed to accommodate older generation’s willingness to participate, or an incentive to participate would need to be included. The participants were told at the beginning that this survey in no way pertained to Taiwan or Taiwan tourism. That being said, since all participants were in Taipei at the time of filling out the questionnaire, it is unknown whether or not being in Taipei had any influence on participant responses. It is also unknown if they travelled to any other cities or locations outside of Taipei, or if they will after they have completed the survey, possibly limiting their perception of Taiwan to Taipei only. It could be argued that even though the people were told this is not a Taiwan-based survey, the fact that they were in Taipei could have had a subconscious priming effect on the outcome of the results.
As this research encompasses multiple determinants of travel satisfaction, it takes a broader approach to understanding what North American and European tourists prefer when travelling. With this research each determinant was given limited attention compared to identifying one determinant and researching it more thoroughly. As this thesis did not divide the determinants into separate, more thorough research papers, further research could be performed by others focusing on a single determinant. More limited was the age range. Respondents were in their 20’s, and if this paper had used different age groups, the results of the analysis could be different. Finally, only two regions were used in this study.
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44 If further research were to be conducted, other researchers could mix and match various regions into the research, as to get a much broader picture of different types of travel preferences. Another limitation is sample size (N only equals 25), but the reason for this is the length of time it takes to complete the survey instrument.
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