Ya Yen Sun

The Economic, Carbon Emission, and Water Impacts of Chinese Visitors to Taiwan Eco-efficiency and Impact Evaluation

China outbound tourism contributes substantial foreign receipts but also creates carbon and water footprints at destinations. This study is set out to analyze whether this tourist segment is a preferred market from the economic and environmental perspectives. Using Taiwan as an example, the direct carbon emission per dollar and total carbon footprint per Chinese inbound visitor is about 20% more efficient than other markets because of a high consumption pattern, longer length of stay, and closer distance between the two regions. However, one unsatisfactory area is the total water footprint because of their high spending on food-related souvenirs that generates substantial water requirements from the agriculture sector. When forecasting the estimated growth of Chinese visitors in Taiwan to 2016, an additional 0.8% increase in economic output is expected at the expense of a 2.7% increase in CO2 emissions and a 3.0% increase in water use.

Impact of Taiwan open policy on Chinese tourist satisfaction

The Taiwan government has imposed a daily visitation quota with strict regulations on Chinese visitor travel modes, length of stay, and visa authorisations since July 2008. This highly controlled scheme was an attempt to maintain service quality over security and political considerations. The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth analysis regarding the Chinese tourist satisfaction over time under different travel modes. The results indicated that package tour (PT) visitors generally gave higher satisfaction scores than free and independent travel visitors. However, PT visitors demonstrated a decreased level of satisfaction on their tour arrangements of hotels, meals, and itineraries. Addressing safety and environmental issues is the priority task in order to provide quality travel services.

The Influence of Remoteness and Isolation in the Rural Accommodation Rental Price among Eastern and Western Destinations

Experiencing the context of a rural environment is the fundamental aspect of rural travel. In order to estimate quantitative influences of the rural environment, this paper proposes to proxy rurality through two indicators: isolation and remoteness. The estimation of a hedonic pricing model with the use of both Geographic Information Systems and spatial econometrics allows obtaining the specific influence of these factors on rural lodging room prices. The methodology is applied to two tourist destinations with similar characteristics from Eastern (Taiwan) and Western (Spain) cultures. Results show that visitors’ preferences for isolation are significant but differ between these two regions. The main reasons that explain this divergence are population density differences between origin and destination, domination of international versus domestic visitors, and the intrinsic destination characteristics and perceived image. Managerial recommendations on how to emphasize the factors in the promotion of accommodation services are derived from the present study.

The moderating effect of nationality on crowding perception, its antecedents, and coping behaviours: A study of an urban heritage site in Taiwan

Due to the significant increase in international tourism arrivals, academic attention that addresses the heterogeneity among nationals with respect to the congestion impact at attraction sites is called for. This study evaluates the moderating effect of nationality on crowding perception, its antecedents, and coping behaviours in order to identify the sensitivity of user groups towards crowding issues. A Taiwanese urban historical site was selected as a case study to assess the differences among domestic Taiwanese, mainland Chinese, and foreign visitors in response to an increase in use pressure. Results supported the moderating effect of nationality on all crowding relationships, and indicated that Taiwanese and foreign visitors were more crowd intolerant and had a higher tendency to engage in coping behaviours than those from mainland China. Good crowding perception, social norms for acceptable behaviours, travel format, and bilateral sociopolitical relationships are suggested as explanations for user differences.

Stability of input-output coefficients by capacity utilization for short-term tourism demand fluctuation.

The ability to portray accurately the regional economic impacts of short-term tourism demand rests on the resemblances between the long-run input–output (IO) technical coefficients and a short-term production function of business sectors. The purpose of this research was to investigate the stability of cost structure by capacity utilization in the tourism industry, using the accommodation sector in Taiwan as an example. Panel data consisting of firm-level financial information based on 13 individual cost categories from 2000 to 2009 were analysed to reveal the magnitude and direction of cost structure changes with respect to occupancy rate. The results indicated that income multipliers and profit multipliers fluctuated substantially but compensated for each other, while IO technical coefficients were very stable. In a situation involving a tourism event, type I and type II sales multipliers and the value added multipliers of the accommodation sector remained relatively stable, but the standard income multipliers were greatly overestimated, or underestimated for tourism recession scenarios. Applying a regional IO model to estimate short-term tourism demand should therefore take into consideration the substitution pattern between personal income and business profits.

Why hotel rooms were not full during a hallmark sporting event: the 2009 World Games experience.

Abstract Hosting mega- and hallmark-events is perceived as an important vehicle for tourism development. However, in the case of the 2009 World Games, the first international hallmark sporting event in Taiwan, the volume of hotel occupancies and revenue fell short of expectations, despite 4 years of planning and an investment of US

The carbon footprint of global tourism

218 million. This study set out to investigate this phenomenon by adopting semi-structured interviews to gather opinions from key stakeholders regarding their business operation and societal conditions. Factors contributing to the lower than expected revenue included inefficient collaboration among stakeholders, a substantial displacement effect to regional hotel competitors, and the unfriendly local atmosphere associated with the fear of H1N1, Typhoon Morakot, and controversial political events. To mitigate inefficiencies from stakeholder collaborations, the study results suggest greater equality in terms of responsibility, information distribution, and risk sharing is needed among the broader tourism industry, the event planning association, and the event supervising authority. In addition, business strategies should take into account Taiwan, an island destination, and current tourism characteristics to counter the displacement effects of loyal and potential customers.

An important factor in job estimation: A nonlinear jobs-to-sales ratio with respect to capacity utilization

Tourism contributes significantly to global gross domestic product, and is forecast to grow at an annual 4%, thus outpacing many other economic sectors. However, global carbon emissions related to tourism are currently not well quantified. Here, we quantify tourism-related global carbon flows between 160 countries, and their carbon footprints under origin and destination accounting perspectives. We find that, between 2009 and 2013, tourism’s global carbon footprint has increased from 3.9 to 4.5 GtCO2e, four times more than previously estimated, accounting for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Transport, shopping and food are significant contributors. The majority of this footprint is exerted by and in high-income countries. The rapid increase in tourism demand is effectively outstripping the decarbonization of tourism-related technology. We project that, due to its high carbon intensity and continuing growth, tourism will constitute a growing part of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.Tourism is a significant contributor to the global economy, with potentially large environmental impacts. Origin and destination accounting perspectives are used to provide a comprehensive assessment of global tourism’s carbon footprint.

Marginal economic impacts of inbound tourism to Taiwan and policy evaluation

Many tools for economic impact evaluation, such as input–output models and computable general equilibrium models, rely on the jobs-to-sales ratio (JSR) to convert direct, indirect and induced effects of sales into employment. For service sectors, this ratio is strongly influenced by capacity utilization and exhibits a non-linear pattern, especially for short-term tourism applications that involve dramatic demand fluctuations as a consequence of mega events, natural disasters or societal instability. The purpose of this study is to decompose the relationship between capacity utilization and the JSR so that the underlying factors that cause the instability of JSR can be identified. Time-series data from the Taiwanese tourist hotels and aviation sectors are adopted to discuss the strength of the relations between price per unit and capacity utilization, total employee numbers and utilization, service capacity and utilization, and labor efficiency and utilization, respectively. The results indicate that the adjustment of labor efficiency is the prominent factor in determining the stability of the jobs-to-sales ratio, while price, to employee number and service capacity are relatively stable in response to demand, leading to changing JSRs.

Move fast, travel slow: the influence of high-speed rail on tourism in Taiwan

This paper presents the economic impact estimation for international visitors to Taiwan using an Input–Output Model to demonstrate the differences of economic contribution by market segments. Economic impacts are compared based on visitor segments by country of residence and travel purpose. The results indicated that high spenders contributed two to three times more expenses in Taiwan than low spenders. In 2000–2001, excluding airfares, business visitors from North America (US