Tourists in Taiwan 2003: Tourist Consumption and Tendencies

Summary

The Ministry of Communications of Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau wants to understand the motives, viewpoints, tendencies and consumption of tourists in Taiwan to supply reference material to tourist related organizations to improve sightseeing facilities in Taiwan and to plan promotions for international sightseeing and marketing strategies.  The survey can be a source of information to estimate the amount of foreign exchange earnings from sightseeing. Here at Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau, we proceeded with the survey in CKS International airport in Toayuan and in Koahsiung international airport, interviewing tourists, where they leave Taiwan.   

This survey adopted the method of “Quota Sampling”, which conformed best with the control of working standards and the characteristics of the sample to achieve randomization. The number of valid samples was 5,005 persons in total from January to December in 2003.

The major investigative results of this survey were distinguished into “Related Indices of the Sightseeing Market of Foreign Tourists in Taiwan”, “ Analysis of Tourists’ Plans”, “Analysis of Tourists’ behavior “, “Analysis of Beneficial Results of Tourist Consumption and Taiwan’s competitiveness for the tourist market”  “Analysis of Basic Information of Tourists” and “ Analysis of the Impact of SARS on Taiwan’s sightseeing development”.

I. Related Indices of the Sightseeing Market of Foreign Tourists in Taiwan

The number of foreign tourists from January to February 2003 was higher than it was from January to February 2002. On March 8, the first case of SARS was discovered in Taiwan. Beginning in March, the number of foreign tourists gradually reduced. The related indices of 2003 were very different from the ones for 2002, which showed the influence of SARS that affected the whole sightseeing market in Taiwan.

II. Related Indices of the Sightseeing Market of Foreign Tourists in Taiwan

A. 51% of foreign tourists had company when visiting Taiwan

The relative popularities of the different kinds of relationship with the company were: 1. colleague (38persons per hundred) 2. friend (33 persons per hundred); tourists from Hong Kong (Macau),Singapore and Malaysia were most often accompanied by friends.

B. Foreign tourists began planning their trips on average 25 days before leaving for Taiwan

Foreign Tourists began planning their trips on average 25.38 days before leaving for Taiwan. Tourists whose purpose was business began planning their visits about half a month prior to arrival; those whose purpose was sightseeing from Japan, Hong Kong (Macau), Singapore, Korea, and Malaysia did it between one half month to one month in advance. The rest of the interviewed foreign tourists did it between one month and two months in advance.    

C. Cuisine and scenery were the major reasons for foreign tourists to take a sightseeing trip to Taiwan

The reasons that the foreign tourists interviewed went sightseeing in Taiwan were mainly cuisine (58 persons per hundred) and scenery (44 persons per hundred), which were roughly the same as the investigative results of previous years.

Table 1. 2003: Reasons that interviewed foreign tourists take sightseeing trips to Taiwan–according to main purpose

                                                       Unit: persons/per hundred people

D. 42% of foreign tourists whose main purpose was business or attending international conferences or exhibitions had spent their spare time on sightseeing during their visit in Taiwan

Of the 42% ,40.51% answered that the time spent on traveling was at most a half day and 28.53 % said one day was spent on traveling. Around 50% of those tourists from Korea and Malaysia had spent their spare time on sightseeing during their visit in Taiwan. The major reason (94.22%) that tourists didn’t spend their spare time on sightseeing was lack of time.

E. Tourists whose purpose was sightseeing and tourists from Hong Kong (Macau) and Malaysia chose to make their trip as a “Group tour arranged by a travel agency”：over 40%

Interviewed foreign tourists visiting in Taiwan chose “Self arranged tours without any arrangements made by a Taiwan travel agency” 62.58% of the time at most. Those who chose “Ticket booking and accommodation arranged by a travel agency only” made up 17.20%. “Group tours arranged through a travel agency” made up 15.34%. Tourists whose purpose was sightseeing and tourists from Hong Kong (Macau) and Malaysia chose to make their trip as a “Group tour arranged by a travel agency” made up 45.47%, 42.73% and 53.70% respectively.

Table 2. Kinds of arrangements foreign tourists interviewed made on their trips–according to main purpose.

                                                                                               Unit: %

Table 3. Kinds of arrangements foreign tourists interviewed made on their trips – according to major country of residence

                                                                                          Unit: %

III. Analysis of Tourists’ behavior

A. How foreign tourists left the airport after arriving in Taiwan：mostly in the cars of relatives, friends or business offices

After foreign tourists arrived in Taiwan, the highest proportion of them, 27%, left the airport by taking the cars of relatives, friends or business offices. The second highest proportion of them, around 20%, took taxis. The third highest proportion of them, 19%, used public transportation. However, tourists whose main purpose was sightseeing and tourists from Hong Kong (Macau), Singapore and Malaysia used cars arranged by travel agencies more of the time. On the other hand, in terms of the means of transport used to arrive in or leave the airport, tourists from many countries tended to be satisfied with them, except that the tourists from Korea were not satisfied with the airplanes used to arrive in Taiwan.    

B. On average, each foreign tourist visited Taiwan 2.50 times during the last three years

The proportion of foreign tourists visiting Taiwan for the first time was the highest one, 49.37%; the average number of times tourists visited Taiwan was 2.50 times; except for tourists whose main purpose was sightseeing or attending Int’l conferences or exhibitions, whose average number of visits was 1.50 and also excluding tourists from Malaysia, who averaged 1 time, the rest of the tourists have done it over 2 times.

C. Close to 50% of foreign tourists visited Taiwan for the first time; over 90% of them were willing to visit again

During the last three years, 49.37% of foreign tourists visited Taiwan for the first time, and the proportion was lower than during the year of 2002; among them, except for tourists from the United States, who were visiting Taiwan for the first time, which rose up during the last three years, the proportions of the rest of the tourists visiting Taiwan for the first time all came down. 98% of the interviewed foreign tourists visiting Taiwan showed their willingness of visiting Taiwan again.

 Table 4. 2003: Interviewed foreign tourists visiting Taiwan for the first time during the last three years

—according to main purpose

                                                                 Unit: % 

Table 5. Interviewed foreign tourists visiting Taiwan for the first time during the last three years

—according to major country of residence

Unit: %                              

D. Taipei was the favorite city (county) of tourists

The frequencies of foreign tourists visiting major cities (counties) in Taiwan: Taipei City (County)(62 persons per hundred); Kaoshiung City(County)(8 persons per hundred); Taichung City(County)(7 persons per hundred). Among the most popular cities(counties) visited, foreign tourists whose main purpose was business and tourists from the United States liked to visit Hualien County the most. The favorite place for tourists from Japan to visit was Pingtung County. Taipei City (County) were the areas that all other tourists liked to visit most (the degree of being liked was 57.67%)

E. “Night markets”, “National Palace Museum” and “Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall” were the major scenic spots for foreign tourists; “Taroko,Tienhsiang” and“ Kenting National Park” were their favorites

Foreign tourists whose main purpose was sightseeing and tourists from Japan and Malaysia visited “National Palace Museum” more often, and their favorite scenic spot was “Taroko,Tienhsiang”. Tourists from Hong Kong (Macau)’s favorite spot to visit was “Shrlin Night Market.” For tourists from the U.S.A., the favorite place was “National Palace Museum “and for tourists from Singapore, the favorite was “Hsimen Ding”. The major reason for tourists disliking scenic spots was the quality of the environment. In addition, tourists visiting the tour line of Tourism Multiplication Plan focused on visiting the line of “North Coast Tour”. Tourists whose main purpose was business or  attending Int’l conferences or exhibitions and tourists from the United States, Europe, New Zealand and Australia visited the line of “ Hengchuen Peninsula Tour”often; tourists from Korea visited the line of “Ilan, Laniang Tour ”; tourists from Malaysia visited the line of “Eastern Taiwan Scenic Tour”.

Table 6. 2003: Ranking of the major scenic spots that interviewed foreign tourists visited.

                                                                                                                               Unit: persons/per hundred                         

Table 7. 2003: Ranking of favorite scenic spots of foreign tourists

Table 8. 2003: The ranking of the tour line’s scenic spots that interviewed tourists have visited

                                                                                                      Unit: persons/per hundred

F. “Shopping”, “Night market sightseeing” and “Visiting historic heritages” were the major activities of foreign tourists in Taiwan

The interviewed foreign tourists visiting in Taiwan participated in the following activities: “Shopping”(60 persons per hundred), “Night market sightseeing” (52 persons per hundred) and “Visiting historic heritages” (35 persons per hundred). Interviewed foreign tourists with different purposes for coming or from different countries of residence mainly participated in shopping or going to the night market while visiting in Taiwan.

IV Analysis of Beneficial Results of Tourist Consumption and Taiwan’s competitiveness for the tourist market

A. The tourists’ impressions after arrival are generally better than original expectations

The ranking of satisfaction that the interviewed foreign tourists had after arrival were: “Friendliness of people”, “Cuisine”, “Historic relics”, “Scenery”, “Public safety”, “Recreational facilities”, “Prices of goods”, “Weather”, “Environmental sanitation” and “Traffic”; however, their impression of the “traffic” situation was worse than they anticipated.

B. 84% of foreign tourists were satisfied with their overall experience in Taiwan

Foreign tourists were inclined to be satisfied with “Sightseeing convenience”, “Sightseeing internationalization” and “Environmental safety.” As for those items involved with the previous three ones, “Friendliness of people”, “Accommodation facilities” and “Public safety” earned high satisfaction, while “Clearness of road signs and public facilities signs”, “Access to services in an international language” and “Environmental sanitation” were evaluated as receiving lower satisfaction.

C. The amount of total annual income of foreign exchange in tourism was US$ 2,976 million, 1.03% of GDP

For 2003 the daily consumption of the average individual foreign tourist visiting Taiwan was US$ 166.08, and the consumption’s annual growth was -18.65%. The details of the proportions of consumption, from highest to lowest were as follows: Hotel bill(46.15%), Shopping(17.96%) and Meals outside of the hotels (12.26%). In terms of main purpose for traveling to Taiwan, to analyze consumption per day, tourists whose main purpose was sightseeing on average spent US$ 201.56 per day, which was higher than those who came for business purposes, whose average was US$ 157.08 per day. For tourists from Japan the average consumption per day was US$ 178.36. In addition, the purchasing power of tourists from Hong Kong (Macau) (US$ 45.20 per day), Malaysia (US$ 37.21 per day) and Japan (US$ 30.46 per day) were the three highest.

Table 9. 2003 : Details of daily average individual consumption –according to main purpose

                                                                                                                                 Unit: US$

Table 10. 2003 : Details of daily average individual consumption

–according to major country of residence

                                                                                                                                              Unit: US$                          

D. 45% of foreign tourists would increase their willingness to shop due to the tax refund, including tourists from Japan, Hong Kong (Macau), Singapore, Korea and “Other areas (including the Americas, Africa and Oceania). 68% of tourists using the tax refund services felt the convenience of the procedures 

5.63% of tourists used the tax refund services. In terms of the convenience of the procedures of the tax refund, 67.89% of tourists using it felt it was convenient.

Table 11. 2003: Willingness to purchase (shopping) from interviewed foreign tourists using the tax refund procedures

—according to main purpose

                                                                                                                                                 Unit：%

Table 12. 2003 : Willingness to purchase (shopping) from interviewed foreign tourists using the tax refund procedures

—according to major country of residence

                                                                                                                                               Unit：%

V Analysis of Basic Information of Tourist

A. Occupations of tourists were mainly legislators, administrators, business executives and managers

23.51% of interviewed foreign tourists were legislators, administrators, business executives and managers. 22.23% were professionals and 21.78% were clerks.

B. The level of education of foreign tourists for most tourists visiting Taiwan was College level or higher and their annual income was between US$ 40,000 and US$ 70,000

The highest category of education on the survey for the interviewed foreign tourists was “College, University of Graduate School”. Most tourists (82.78%) were in this category. The average annual income of interviewed foreign tourists was US$ 53,339.80. Those tourists whose annual income was between US$ 40000 and 70000 were most numerous and made up 21.24% of those interviewed.

C. Foreign tourists mainly chose “Int’l tourist hotel” and “Tourist hotel” for accommodation. The percentage that was in general satisfied with hotels was 73%

The major choice of accommodation for foreign tourists in Taiwan was the hotel. (84 persons per hundred) found accommodation in hotels. Among those, (56 persons per hundred) chose “Int’l tourist hotel” and (37 persons per hundred) chose “Tourist hotel”. The locations of the accommodations focused around Taipei (69 persons per hundred) and also to an extent, around Koahsiung (10 persons per hundred). The major options of accommodation rates per night were from US$ 45-90 for 34.48% of the tourists and from US$ 90-135 for 24.49% of the tourists. Further analysis of tourist preferences towards hotels displayed: location of city center, characteristics of hotel in “combination of resort and commercial purposes”, and hotels providing services of free breakfast, free airport pickup and internet.  

Table 13. Preference of Hotels—according to major country of residence

D. 84% of foreign tourists were satisfied with their overall impressions of travel agencies and the services of the tour guides

Interviewed foreign tourists were inclined to be satisfied with travel agencies and the services of the tour guides, whose ranking of satisfaction from high to low was: “Professionalism of the tour guides”, “Services of the tour guides”, “Arrangement of transportation”, “Arrangement of accommodations”, “Arrangement of the visit” and “Arrangement of meals”

VI Analysis of the Impact of SARS on Taiwan’s tourism development

A. The number of tourists visiting Taiwan dramatically decreased on account of the impact of the SARS epidemic

The number of foreign tourists visiting Taiwan in 2003: January and February of 2003 were higher in comparison with January and February of 2002. From the beginning of March, the number of foreign tourists gradually decreased monthly. The lowest number of tourists, 40,256, was occurred in May. After summer began, the SARS epidemic was brought under control and the number of foreign tourists gradually increased monthly, which revealed that the tourism industry in Taiwan was affected by SARS, stunting it’s development.

B. The decrease in the number of tourists whose main purpose was sightseeing, which was lower than the number of tourists whose main purpose was business

Table 14. From 2001 to 2003--the distribution of main purpose of tourists visiting Taiwan

                                                                      Unit：%

C. The amount of purchasing done by visiting foreign tourists decreased, while the purchasing of “Chinese herbs or medicine” increased obviously

In the last 10 days of March 2003, due to the impact of the U.S.-Iraq war and the SARS epidemic bursting into Asia, the average amount of consumption of the first season of 2003 declined, the consumption market of tourist in Taiwan was hit seriously as well; however, after the promotional plans for sightseeing carried out by Taiwan’s government in the third season of 2003, the average amount of consumption in the fourth season recovered from it’s decrease and risen again in comparison with the previous two seasons, but the epidemic of bird flu in Asia in the middle of December had an influence again on tourism in Asia------the average amount of consumption per person per day for the whole year of 2003 went down to US$ 166.08, a decrease of 18.65% in comparison with previous years.

Table 15. 2003 : The Average Amount of Consumption per Person per Day of Interviewed Tourists

                                                                                                                     Unit: US$

In terms of consumption details in purchasing, the proportion purchasing “Chinese herbs or medicine” is 20.49%. The next highest is “Jewelry or jade”, 14.43%. “Local famous or specialty products” made up 13.43%. The amount of consumption of purchasing “Chinese herbs or medicine” (88.14% growth) grew the most obviously in comparison with the consumption of “Chinese herbs or medicine” in 2002. 

Table 16. 2001 to 2003, Details of the Average Amount of Consumption in Purchasing per Person per Day

                                                                                                                              Unit: US$

P.S.

1. Clothes and accessories, 2. Jewelry or jade, 3. Souvenirs and handcrafted products

4. Cosmetics or perfumes, 5. Local famous or specialty products,

6. Alcohol, tobacco or cigarettes, 7. Chinese herbs or medicine, 8. Other

D. The impact of SARS in Taiwan and the government’s carrying out the promotion plan related to sightseeing in the back period of SARS shortened the planning time of foreign tourists visiting Taiwan whose main purpose was sightseeing, which also elevated the proportion of tourists whose main purpose was business or attending Int'l conferences or exhibitions that spent their spare time on sightseeing during their visits in Taiwan

Table 17. 2003: Length of time (in days) prior to departure spent planning the trip—according to sightseeing as the main purpose

Table 18. 2003: Whether or not the interviewed foreign tourists visiting in Taiwan spent their spare time on sightseeing

E. Due to the impact of SARS, the frequency of the scenic spots in the southern area of Taiwan being chosen by tourist to visit increased

Table 19. 2003:Locations of cities (counties) near scenic spots that Interviewed Tourists visited

                                                                                                       Unit: persons/per hundred

F. Due to the impact of SARS, the proportion of tourists that made arrangements through a travel agency decreased

Table 20. Kinds of arrangements that interviewed foreign tourists made on their trips in Taiwan

                                                                                                                                   Unit：%

Table 21. 2003: Kinds of arrangements that interviewed foreign tourists made on their trips in Taiwan

                                                                                                                                          Unit：%