Agricultural Globalization and Rural Tourism Development in Taiwan
HONG-CHIN TSAI*
Department of Social Work, Asia University, Taiwan
Department of Leisure and Recreation Management, Asia University, Taiwan Department of Agricultural Extension, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
ABSTRACT
Initially, Taiwan’s agriculture industry was slow to become international. However, since joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the beginning of 2002, the internationalization of Taiwan’s agriculture has become more intensive. Along with this development, Taiwan’s rural tourism has also advanced.
In the later stage of agricultural internationalization, when Taiwan joioed the WTO, Taiwan’s agricultural production and exports became more difficult. A greater number of agricultural products, and larger volumes, were imported. Farm land shifted use to leisure and recreation purposes and more farmers changed their occupations to tourism and associated services.
This study uses government documents, data reported in the literature and the results of interviews with owners of rural tourism enterprises to support the argument that rural tourism has development in Taiwan as a way of adapting to the process of agricultural transformation. Rural tourism developed significantly when Taiwan’s agriculture production and marketing became more difficult due to the process of agricultural globalization, particularly under the effect of joining the WTO.
Finally this paper has comments on the prospects and limitations for the development of rural tourism in the future of Taiwan.
Key words: agricultural globalization, rural tourism, Taiwan.
1. INTRODUCTION
Agricultural globalization and rural tourism development are two important agricultural issues in the current stage of agricultural and socio-economic development in Taiwan. Agricultural globalization in this paper is defined as both Taiwan’s agricultural products being distributed in the world market and foreign agricultural products being distributed in Taiwan. Many papers have presented the consequences of joining the WTO, (Chinese Agricultural Economic Association [CAEA], 2001; COA Research Center, 2002), the negative effects of joining the WTO on agricultural production in terms of decreasing agricultural labor (Liu, 2002), decreasing chicken prices (Chen & Lin 2000), and many other aspects of the negative impacts on agriculture (Hsu, 2002), as well as on farmers, on rural society and on farmers’ associations (Tsai, 1998, 1999). However, none of these papers has further indicated the significance of those negative effects for the development of rural tourism. This paper intends to explain the negative effect of joining the WTO on agricultural production and marketing as a significant factor for affecting the development of rural tourism in Taiwan. The negative effects of participating in GATT and joining the WTO on agriculture, the process of rural tourism
* E-mail: hongchin@asia.edu.tw
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development and the impact of negative results on agricultural production and marketing on the development of rural tourism in Taiwan are presented. These explanations and presentations are expected to introduce more information and knowledge related to the topic, and to make proper policies for promoting rural tourism development in Taiwan.
Theoretically speaking, joining the WTO formed a new environmental situation for agricultural in Taiwan. This external factor resulted in a crucial transformation of agricultural structure and operation for individual farms and for Taiwan as a whole. The effects of low profit for crops and livestock production pushed farmers in the direction of adopting new agricultural operations to make a living. Leisure agriculture and rural tourism became important service industries, allowing farmers to improve their economic situations, remain on their farms and in their home communities. At the same time, joining the WTO created a better exporting opportunity for the industrial products of this country. It should have the positive effect of promoting industrial and urban development. The higher the level of industrial and urban development in Taiwan, the more industrial workers and urban residents will have higher motivation to visit leisure farms and rural areas. It will become a great force for promoting the development of rural tourism.
This paper makes use of governmental documents, data reported in the literature and the results of interviews with the owners of rural tourism enterprises to support the argument that there is a relationship between the negative effect on agricultural production of joining the WTO and the development of rural tourism.
2. A BRIEF PROCESS OF AGRICULTURAL GLOBALIZATION
The agricultural development process in Taiwan has been classified into different stages by different scholars and different governmental officers (Liao, Huang and Hsiao 1986; Chen 1997; Chen 2006). Based on agricultural policy descriptions and agricultural trade statistical data compiled by the Council of Agriculture (COA) and the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) I define the process of agricultural globalization, or internationalization, in Taiwan as consisting roughly of four stages. In different stages, the situation of local agricultural products in the world agricultural markets, the impact of imported agricultural products on local agricultural production and marketing, and governmental adoption strategies for agriculture are all different. The development of rural tourism is an effective adoption strategy in the final stage of agricultural globalization. In this stage, imported agricultural products increased remarkably and the production and the export of Taiwan’s agriculture became more difficult.
The first stage of agricultural globalization in Taiwan was the period from 1952-1970. In this stage the percentage of agricultural exports in the total exports was higher than the percentage of agricultural imports in the total imports. The second stage was the period of 1971-1992 when agricultural exports decreased but were still more than 5 % of the total exports. The third stage was the decade after 1991 when the imported value of foreign agricultural products became much greater than the exported value of local agricultural products. Agricultural imports
increased remarkably, mainly because Taiwan rejoined GATT. The final stage was the period after 2002 when Taiwan joined the WTO. During this period, Taiwan imported many kinds of foreign agricultural products. Also, local agricultural production and marketing became extremely difficult. The situations of agricultural production and marketing in these four different stages are described in more detailed below.
2.1 The Prosperity Stage of Agricultural Production and Export from 1952–1970
Agricultural development in Taiwan from 1952-1970 set a good foundation for the economic development of the country. The total agricultural production in 1960 comprised 28.5% of the total GDP, which was slightly higher than the 26.9%
of industrial production. The agricultural production and processing products dropped down to 15.5% of GDP in 1970, but the percentage was still high.
Agricultural production and marketing represented one major production and one important export item respectively during this period. (Council for Economic Planning and Development [CEPD], 2005, p. 18)
In 1971 the percentage of agricultural exports comprised 22.97% of total exports. It was still higher than 22.50% for agricultural imports in the total imports.
But after 1971 the percentage of agricultural exports in total exports became lower than the percentage of agricultural imports in total imports.
2.2 The Agricultural Reduction Stage in the Two Decades after 1971
The proportion of agricultural production and exports decreased gradually in the two decades after 1971. Agricultural production value comprised 15.5% of total GDP in 1970. It decreased gradually to 12.7% in 1975, 7.7% in 1980, 4.2% in 1990, and was only 2.1% in 2000 (CEPD, 2005, p. 18). Agricultural export value comprised 22.97% of total export value in 1971. This dropped sharply to 10.41% in 1981, 5.04% in 1991, and was only 2.21% in 2000 (Council of Agriculture [COA], 2004, p. 44). The depression of agricultural production and export caused changes in the use of agricultural land from production to leisure.
Industrial development became more important in Taiwan during the same period. Industrial exports have been the major export in Taiwan’s since 1970. In this year, the total industrial exports comprised 78.6% of total exporting value. This increased to 90.8% in 1980, 95.5% in 1990 and became higher than 98.2% after 2000 (CEPD, 2005, p. 216).
The development of industry in this stage caused an increase in labor cost in the agricultural sector, a rapid growth of per capita income, the development of transportation, plus an increase of people’s demand in leisure, recreation time and activities. All these economic changes became important forces in promoting the development of leisure farms, leisure agriculture and rural tourism in Taiwan.
2.3 Greater Agricultural Reduction in the Decade from 1991-2001
In the 1990s Taiwan’s government attempted several times to participate in
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GATT negotiations. As part of the GATT agreement, the government was required to decrease agricultural support. Agricultural production and exports in Taiwan thus became more difficult. Agricultural production comprised 3.8% of total GDP in 1991, but decreased to only 2.0% in 2001. Agricultural exports were 5.04% of the total exports in 1991 but declined to only 2.47% in 2001 (CEPD, 2005, p. 18;
COA, 2004, p. 44).
2.4 The Last Stage: Joining the WTO after 2002
Taiwan joined the WTO at the beginning of the year 2002. Since then, Taiwan’s agriculture has become more intensively affected by international markets. More kinds and larger volumes of foreign agricultural products have been imported due to the removal of tariffs. A greater volume and value of agricultural imports also resulted in a heavier dependency on local demand and consumption of foreign agricultural products. Local agricultural production thus became extremely difficult. The status of agriculture in whole economy became lower. The proportion of agricultural production value in the total GDP was 1.9% in 2002. This decreased to only 1.7% in 2004 (CEPD, 2005, p. 18).
In short, the four stages of agricultural globalization in Taiwan described above can be summarized as in the following table.
Table 1. Stages and characteristics of agricultural globalization in Taiwan in past decades Stage Period Agricultural Production and Trade Situation I 1952–1970
(Prosperity of agricultural production and export)
Higher than 15% of the agricultural production in total GDP, and higher than 22.97% of agricultural exports in total export value.
II 1971–1990 (Reduction of agricultural production and export)
The proportion of the agricultural production decreased to 4.2% in 1990. The agricultural export value decreased to 5.45
% in the same year III 1991–2001
(Participation in GATT and reduction of agriculture)
In 2001, agricultural production value decreased to 2.0% and agricultural exports decreased to 2.4% of total exports.
IV 2001–(Joining the WTO and extreme difficulty for agriculture)
Agricultural production value in total GDP decreased from 1.9% in 2002 to 1.7% in 2004. Agricultural export value decreased from 2.41% in 2002 to 2.04% in 2004
Sources: Council for Economic Planning and Development, Republic of China, Taiwan Statistical Data Book 2005, p.
18; Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan,Basic Agricultural Statistics 2004, p.44.
3. PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES CONFRONTING TAIWAN’S AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND SALES AFTER
JOINING THE WTO
3.1 Factors
There are two main factors which caused more difficulties for agricultural production and sales in Taiwan after it joined the WTO in 2002. The first factor is the greater increase in imported volume and value than exported volume and value.
The other is the greater diversity in imported agricultural goods. After joining the WTO, Taiwan’s net imported value of agricultural goods were 7,079.7 million US dollars in 2002, 7,781.9 million US dollars in 2003, and 8,862 million US dollars in 2004 (COA, 2004, p. 44). All these net imported values were greater than the net imported value of agricultural goods for any single previous year and greater than the net exported value of agricultural goods for the same years respectively. In only flower and fishery products, among more than twenty items of agricultural products, was the exported value greater than the imported value. Data mentioned above indicate an important fact that Taiwan’s agricultural production and marketing was seriously compromised by foreign agricultural products after joining the WTO.
3.2 Consequences
There were two unfavorable consequences in the agricultural sector after Taiwan joined the WTO in 2002. The first was a decrease in exports and an increase in imports. The second was a decrease in production.
3.2.1 The decrease in exports and the increase in imports
Taiwan had much less annual exported value than annual imported value for most kinds of traditional agricultural products in the three years after joining the WTO. Taiwan’s farmers’ thus lost most of their living resources and faced great economic problems. Many farmers gave up their traditional ways of agricultural production. They reserved land resources for no use or changed the use. Many farmers also shifted their jobs from agricultural work to non-agricultural work.
Those who changed their land use styles commonly started to operate leisure farming or hostels. This change effectively promoted the development of leisure farming and rural tourism.
3.2.2 The decrease in agricultural production volume
When Taiwan entered a higher level of agricultural globalization, the type and volume of imported agricultural products also increased. Most local agricultural production thus became more difficult. Some important traditional crops decreased drastically, or even disappeared. Some crops decreased more rapidly in their growing areas and production volume than other kinds of crops. Table 2 shows the decrease of these growing areas and production volumes for some important traditional crops in Taiwan from 1986-2004.
Table 2 shows the fact that for eight major crops in Taiwan, the growing area decreased by about 60 percent during the period from 1986 to 2004. Most traditional crops, except peanut, sweet potato and rice, decreased by 70-80 percent of production volume during the same period.
4. THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEISURE FARM AND LEISURE AGRICULTURE AS AN ADOPTION STRATEGY In the process of agricultural globalization the government of Taiwan has adopted the development of leisure farms and leisure agriculture as an adjustment
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strategy to overcome the agricultural production and marketing problems caused by participating in GATT and joining the WTO. One major purpose of adopting the development of leisure farms and leisure agriculture is to achieve effective use of farmland and effective improvement in farmers’ income and living conditions. In the early steps the adopting strategy focused on developing tourism orchards, leisure farms and leisure agriculture, and then transferred to developing rural tourism. More detailed processes of these developments are discussed below.
Table 2. Decreases in growing areas and production volume for some important traditional crops in Taiwan, 1986-2004
Crops production areas (ha) production volume (thousand kt)
1986 2004 decreased
volume
Decrease d rates
1986 2004 decreased volume
Decreased rates
rice 537,723 237,351 300,372 55.9 2,496,510 1,433,611 1,062,899 42.6
corn 61,137 9,132 52,005 85.1 222,009 45,631 176,387 79.4
sweet potato 22,062 8,184 13,878 62.9 324,042 175,421 148,621 45.9
peanut 56,592 21,807 34,785 61.5 77,150 86,302 8,848 11.5
Sorghum 23,249 2,611 20,638 88.8 96,982 12,826 84,156 86.8
Bean 9,449 135 9,314 98.6 14,890 280 14,610 98.1
Sugar Cane 64,573 14,231 58,342 78.0 6,001,871 1,129,385 4,872,486 81.2
Tobacco 9,045 2,196 6,849 75.7 24,322 5,490 18,832 77.4
Sources: Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, 2004, Taiwan Agricultural Statistics 2004, p. 22, p. 33.
4.1 The Development of Tourism Orchards
The strategy of developing tourism orchards started in about the late 1970s.
This development strategy was adopted because the traditional way for growing crops and fruits by farmers could not make sufficient profit to cover the loss under the GATT structure. Although fruit growing is a relatively better way of making profit than other types of farming, it is still not good enough in the production and marketing processes. Major problems and difficulties were caused by keen competition from foreign fruits in international fruit markets. The urbanization process ran very fast in Taiwan in 1970s. Many urban residents had great interest in visiting tourism orchards, leisure farms, rural communities and rural scenery at weekends or holidays. In this stage, per capita income increased rapidly, transportation became more convenient, holidays became longer, urban residents’
demands for outdoor leisure and recreation activities also expanded. Facing this situation, agricultural administration authorities started to encourage farmers to open their orchards for tourists and to encourage urban residents to visit at weekends or holidays. The final purpose for promoting tourism orchards was to improve farmers’ income and to protect orchard farming.
However, the benefit to farmers for operating orchard farms is limited. It provided benefits for fruit farmers in suburban areas, but not in remote rural areas.
Also the visitors’ spoiling fruit products caused profits to decline or to disappear altogether for orchard farmers in suburban areas. Many fruit orchards were finally closed. But some orchard owners continued to operate their farms for more extensive leisure activities. Different types of leisure farms were created.
4.2 The Development Model of Leisure Farms and Leisure Agriculture
Taiwan started to adopt leisure farms in about the late 1980s. Several county farmers’ associations began to operate various styles of leisure farms in this stage.
Tainan County Farmers’ Association started to operate Chou-Ma-Lai Leisure Farm and Chang-Hua County Farmers’ Association started to operate Tong-Shih Leisure Forest in about same period. Later on, many other leisure farms were successively opened. The Council of Agriculture, at the top level of government, produced the Leisure Farm Management Act in 1992. It declared again the Supervision Strategy of Leisure Farm in April 1999. Since then,, farmers have had a legal and policy base for promoting more activities on their leisure farms.
The major goals of the Leisure Farm Supervision Act are to use agricultural and rural resources substantially, to develop rural economy actively, and to improve farmers’ income effectively. Government’s major supervising roles under the policy are to plan leisure farming zones, to supervise farm owners in their construction of facilities and to audit their ways of management. This act was revised again in 2002.
In the new act, leisure farm supervision regulations, leisure agricultural planning evaluation acts, evaluation principles for applications to change land for constructing leisure facilities, and standards for constructing buildings on the farm were all set out.
The development of leisure agriculture emphasized the use of farm lands for leisure purposes. Farms changed from production to leisure. Important leisure items on the farm include tourism, exercise, education, resting, providing food and beverages, and providing living quarters. Consumers enjoy their leisure objectives through practicing these items and related activities.
The development program for leisure farms in Taiwan is still improving and the development results in general have been good. A survey completed in December 2004 indicated that there were 1,102 leisure farms over the whole of Taiwan. I-Lan County and Taipei City are two administrative regions that have relatively more leisure farms than other regions. Among all farms, 128 (11.6%) are distributed in I-Lan County and 91 farms (8.3%) are located in Taipei City. Five hundred and eighty-four farms (53.0%) were started within the last five years. The scale of leisure farms in Taiwan is generally small. Five hundred and eighty-nine farms (53.5%) have only from 0.5 hectares to 3.0 hectares. Three hundred and fourteen farms have hostels. Six hundred and thirty-one farms provide beverage and food services. Three hundred and thirty-two farms (30.1%) have production processing facilities. Three hundred and ninty-two farms (35.6%) have showrooms or exhibition centers. Three hundred and sixty-eight farms (33.4%) have facilitated centers. Seventy farms (6.4%) have requested visitors to pay an entrance fee. Two hundred and five farms can provide camping facilities and three hundred and sixteen farms have constructed jogging tracks. One hundred and ninety-four farms (17.6%) have constructed erosion protection. Five hundred and twenty-two farms allow visitors to pick fruits from the trees. Three hundred and twenty-eight farms allow visitors to harvest vegetables. Four hundred and eighty-four farms (43.9%) can demonstrate farming techniques and allow visitors to participate. Five hundred
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and sixty-eight farms (6.2%) can provide ecological activities. Two hundred farms (18.1%) can provide visitors with practices related folk technology.
The same survey also indicated that there were 43,130,000 visitors to all leisure farms for a year. The total revenue from selling entrance ticket was NT$
543,583,000. So each farm earned about NT$ 2,850,000. The total annual sale income for all farms was NT$ 1,075,503,000, and the average annual sale income per farm was NT$ 1,630,000. In other words, the total annual income for all leisure farms in Taiwan in 2004 was NT$ 4,512,283,000, and each farm earned an average of NT$ 4,090,000. This income level was much higher than the income earned from agricultural production. (Chen & Tuan, 2004, pp. 11-52)
5. A WIDE RURAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
Agricultural globalization in Taiwan effected the development of tourism orchards and tourism farms first, then the development of rural tourism. The former is a spot development type and the later is a wide area development type. The content of rural tourism covers tourism in orchards, farms, culture, life, scenic areas, religious activities, food, and air in rural areas. Such a wide range of rural tourism was developed through both governmental support and people’s efforts. More concrete development strategies are listed and described below.
5.1 One-township-one-tourism-area Development Strategy
One-township-one-tourism-area is a pioneer rural tourism development project that was initiated by the Council of Agriculture in 2001. The main objective of this strategy is to mobilize rural people to develop their agricultural and fishery resources in rural communities as tourism attractions. Through this development process, rural areas attracted more tourists from urban areas. Rural people also received more profit and improved living conditions. Through this development project, the number of tourism spots increased, and tourism areas became wider. In Taiwan in 2004, there were 1,102 tourism farms, 1,466 tourism hostels, 66 rented farms for urban residents, 17 forest tourism areas, 300 tourism agricultural and fishery zones, and 385 tourism orchards. The total number of tourists in this year was 8,200,000 and the total annual income was NT$ 45 billion (Chiu, 2000, pp. 1- 482).
5.2 Combining Rural Tourism Development and Community Development Models
In order to extend rural tourism areas, it is necessary to combine rural tourism development and rural community development. The main idea of this development model, or strategy, is to develop rural communities as tourism areas.
Important development dimensions and processes include following four steps:
5.2.1 Renew and beautify features of communities
In order to attract tourists to visit rural communities, some old communities should be renewed and beautified. Import works include renewing and beautifying old buildings, roads, and public facilities.
5.2.2 Grow more trees, flowers, and grass
Most of villages in Taiwan lack trees, flowers, and grass. Growing trees, flowers, and grass can improve the scenery in these villages.
5.2.3 Provide essential facilities and services
Rural tourists would request all kinds of essential facilities and services.
Important items include hostels, food and beverage shops, transportation and practical opportunities. (Cheng, 2005, pp. 86-90)
5.2.4 Train and educate rural people’s good hosting attitudes and behavior Good hosting attitudes and behavior are also important factors for attracting tourists from outside to visit and stay in rural areas. Important good hosting attitudes and behavior include honesty, kindness, warmth, and hospitality. On the contrary, cheating, coolness, indifference, and other bad attitudes and behavior may inhibit tourists from visiting rural areas. (Tang, 2005, pp. 86-90)
5.3 The Development of A Hostel Model
Taiwan started to develop hostels in 2001 and the Tourism Bureau defined hostel management regulations in December 2001. There were 65 legal hostels and 535 illegal hostels in January 2003, these figures increased to 1,292 legal hostels and decreased to 231 illegal hostels in 2006. The total number of rooms in legal hostels in 2006 was 5,259. That means an average of 4.07 rooms in each legal hostel. But the average number of rooms in illegal hostels was a little more; there were 5.66 rooms on average in 2006. Hostels are unequally distributed in different counties of Taiwan. Hualien and Nantou are two counties that have more hostels than other counties or cities. This reflects the fact that there are more visitors to these two counties. Also the farmers’ associations in these two counties promoted tourism relatively actively as compared to other places. (Cheng & Wu, 2006, pp.
61-69)
The main idea of the development of hostels by farmers is that they remodel their old houses as hostels and serve tourists through providing food and beverage.
5.4 Providing Food, Beverage Services and DIY Demonstrations
A rural tourism development strategy needs local people’s participation (Richard & Hall, 2000, pp. 17-35). Important participation in tourism planning in Taiwan includes providing food, beverages and DIY demonstrations. Many rural tourism areas in Taiwan have developed various famous local foods and beverages recently. Local handcraft makers or farmers also demonstrate all kinds of techniques for making handcrafts and farming for urban visitors. Visitors use
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existing workshops to practice handcraft making or farming techniques. This practical service has interested visitors greatly.
6. PROSPECTS AND LIMITATIONS OF RURAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN THE FUTURE
The future development of rural tourism in Taiwan has optimistic prospects on one hand and pessimistic limitations on the other.
6.1 Optimistic Prospects
On the optimistic side, rural tourism will become more prosperous in the future. There are five important reasons. (1) Industrialization and urbanization levels in Taiwan will become higher in the future, thus the demand for rural tourism will become more urgent. As indicated previously, a highly industrialized and urbanized country, Germany, also has a highly developed rural tourist industry.
(Tsai, 2004) When Taiwan reaches a higher level of industrialization and urbanization in the future, its rural tourism will be more urgently demanded by industrial workers and urban residents. (2) The management of rural tourism will become more successful due to more education and studies in the area. Thus, the tourism industry will effectively attract customers. (3) The higher economic development level of Mainland China and the more open political policies between the two sides of the strait asserted by political elites in Taiwan, will cause more Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan. (4) The government of Taiwan will invest more capital in the development of rural tourism in order to promote economic development and stabilize political security. The development of tourism farms and long stay programs has already been adopted as a currently important tourism policy by central government. (5) Leisure and recreation departments in universities and colleges will effectively promote the development practice of rural tourism more successfully, because teaching programs and research projects have become quite active.
6.2 Pessimistic Limitations
Through reviewing the related literature and field observations, the author of this paper has seen some limitation to the development of Taiwan’s rural tourism in the future. Huan-Cheng Kuo and others (Kuo, 2005, pp. 1-14; Liu and Tu, 2005, pp.
141-147) found several serious problems in the process of rural tourism development in Mainland China. Taiwan may also face these problems in its development of rural tourism. According to Kuo, there are eight obvious problems.
(1) People lack correct recognition. (2) The plan lacks integrating concepts. (3) The plan lacks market analysis. (4) Tourism products are too monotonous. (5) The development has bad conditions. (6) The development lacks management norms. (7) Owners do not have sufficient capital input. (8) There is a lack of policy and regulation. These development limitations of rural tourism in Mainland China may
also be possible development limitations in Taiwan. However, Taiwan certainly has the following shortcomings for the development of rural tourism.
6.2.1 Rural areas lack leisure and tourism resources
Large portions of rural areas in the low-lying regions lack mountains, lakes, trees and other natural resources to attract tourists. Government and people can not create these resources effectively.
6.2.2 In general, the rural community scenery is not very beautiful
Old rural communities look confused and disordered. A large amount of money needs to be invested to improve these communities. But community people and government may have not sufficient funds to make this improvement.
6.2.3 The limited number of tourists within Taiwan can not support the development project of rural tourism very successfully
Most of rural tourists are urban residents, but some urban residents face the limitations of time and finance for visiting rural areas. They can only take a short vacation to visit rural areas which are not too far from their homes. Remote rural areas always become slow tourism areas. Rural people in these areas can not easily earn money from tourists.
6.2.4 Conflicts exist between rural tourism development and environment protection
The development of rural tourism is heavily dependent on exploiting rural tourism areas. But such exploitation seriously conflicts with the environment protection movement. Land and environment protectors always have objections to the exploitation of water reservoirs or the development of new tourism areas.
6.2.5 Natural tourism resources could be spoilt by industrial development projects
Many areas of open land are good for both tourism and industrial uses. If the land is used for industrial purposes, it has no value for tourism purposes. Chi-Ku Wet Land in Tainan County has been used for observing birds for a long time, but some industrial owners eagerly expect to develop it as an industrial park. When this piece of land is used for industrial purpose, it will lose its tourism value.
6.2.6 There are limitations to extending Taiwan’s rural tourism to the world market
The major limitation for extending Taiwan’s rural tourism to world market is the political interference from Mainland China. Another limitation is the lack of tourism resources in Taiwan. Furthermore, improper management and the poor level of international language of tourism operators are also crucial limitations for attracting international tourists to visit rural Taiwan.
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Hong-Chin Tsai received his Ph.D. degree in Sociology from Brown University in 1978. He worked at National Taiwan University as a Teaching Assistant, Instructor, Associate Professor, and Professor from 1965 to 2002. He also served as the Chairman of the Department of Agricultural Extension, the Director of Population Studies Center, and the Director of Agricultural Exhibition Hall of National Taiwan University. Besides, he served as Presidents of Taiwan Sociological Association, Taiwan Population Association, and Taiwan Rural Sociological Association. Professor Tsai was a Chair Professor in the Department of Social Work and the Department of Leisure and Recreation Management, Asia University. He is now a Professor Emeritus in these two departments and in the Department of Agricultural Extension, National Taiwan University.
Professor Tsai has published couple hundred papers and more than twenty books in his specialized areas of rural sociology, population studies,leisure studies and others.
