Taiwan Tourism Industry Report

Taiwan Tourism Industry Report

In June 2004, I participated in the delegation's official exchanges in Taiwan. I had the opportunity to inspect the development of Taiwan's tourism industry and made some thoughts on how Fujian Province can accelerate the development of tourism and strengthen tourism cooperation between Fujian and Taiwan. Here are your thoughts and suggestions, for your reference.
I. Overview of Taiwan's Tourism Development Taiwan's tourism industry has been developed since 1956. In the past half century, it has experienced three key development stages: foreign tourists coming to Taiwan for sightseeing, people going out for island sightseeing and popular island sightseeing. Now, the development pattern of inbound tourism, outbound tourism and island tourism “three in one” has been realized. However, Taiwan is basically a region of passenger output, with more outbound passengers than inbound passengers, and the tourism income deficit is large. Overall, Taiwan's tourism industry lags behind some Asian countries and regions. Its inbound tourists account for 0.33% of the world's outbound tourists, and tourism revenue accounts for 2.5% of global tourism revenue. At present, Taiwan is implementing the “New Strategy for Developing Tourism in the 21st Century”, striving to create an “island of sightseeing” and strive to become one of the major tourist destinations in Asia. Various tourism companies have also tried their best to "deeply cultivate tourism" in order to make Taiwan's tourism industry refreshing in the international market.
Industrial Status and Industrial Policy In the early 1980s, the Taiwan authorities first included tourism in nine “governance priorities”, marking the official recognition of tourism as an industry. However, Taiwan has long relied on the development of manufacturing to support the economy. The tourism industry has not been fully valued. This has largely distorted the industry-led policies of the tourism industry and thus affected the actual industrial status of the tourism industry. In recent years, with the shift of manufacturing to the island and the continued downturn of the economy, the authorities gradually turned their attention to the tourism industry, reversing the past “taking the industrial economy as a handsome” and changing to “the tourism industry, making tourism a new one. "The locomotive of the industry" has introduced the "Five Revitalization Sightseeing Keys" and implemented the "Sightseeing Multiplier Program". To this end, the authorities have formulated a number of policy measures to support the development of tourism. For example, this year, the implementation of the "foreign passenger shopping tax rebate" system to shape the "image of the island of shopping" new image, attract more inbound tourists.
Tourism Resources Development Taiwan's tourism resources are very rich, especially the natural tourism resources are most prominent. The complex and unique landscape, the varied climate and a wide variety of flora and fauna make Taiwan like a large marine park. From the Qing Dynasty, there are eight scenic spots. The saying of twelve wins. With the development of modern tourism, traditional natural scenic spots have been unable to meet the demand, and many theme parks or parks such as Jianhu Mountain and Jiuzu Cultural Village have been developed. Taiwan is also increasingly paying attention to the development of humanities and tourism resources such as cultural relics, architecture, folk art, folk customs, and specialties, so that it can be integrated with the natural landscape to fully reflect historical values ​​and humanistic characteristics. In addition, the development of tourism resources continues to extend to urban landscapes, industrial and agricultural production landscapes, science parks, museums, exhibition halls, etc., greatly enriching the content of tourism.
While developing tourism resources, Taiwan attaches great importance to the protection of tourism resources. For example, the concept of “ecological conservation and environmental sustainability” has been formulated, and the “sustainable development strategy for tourism resources” has been formulated and implemented to guide the tourism industry to promote eco-tourism and establish tourism. Resource exit and nutrient mechanism, tourism environment monitoring mechanism, etc., received good results.
Tourism Industry Development The watershed for the growth of Taiwan's travel agencies was the opening of the people's outbound tourism in 1979, and the opening of the Taiwanese people to the mainland the following year. The number of travel agencies has developed rapidly and the scope of business operations has expanded. As of 2003, there were a total of 1,923 travel agencies across Taiwan, with 40,740 employees. However, Taiwan’s travel agencies have problems with large numbers of homes and small scales and poor risk resistance. In recent years, Taiwan’s economy has continued to slump, travel agencies have been viciously cutting prices, layoffs and pay cuts have been frequent, and there have been many bankruptcies. It is time to reorganize the travel agency industry.
Taiwan Travel Hotel is divided into international tourist hotels and general tourist hotels according to its scale and equipment. By the end of 2003, Taiwan had 62 international tourist hotels, 18,776 guest rooms, 25 general tourist hotels and 3,120 guest rooms. The average housing rate in the hotel industry is around 60%, and the total operating income is about 30 billion Taiwan dollars per year, with 19,853 employees. In the past ten years, the hotel industry in Taiwan has been developing towards internationalization, and the level of hotels has been continuously improved. The newly added hotels are mostly four- and five-star international tourist hotels, and there are large-scale hotel groups in the island operated by Fuhua and Evergreen.
Taiwan's tourist attractions are dotted with a total of 279 island-wide sightseeing and recreation areas, with more than 100 representative ones. The operation and management of these scenic spots are divided into “national” scenic spots, “national” parks, “national” forest amusement parks, “national” farms, natural reserves and protected areas, and county and municipal scenic spots. . It is worth mentioning that the development of scenic spots such as Alishan, Yangmingshan, Taroko, Kenting and the eastern coast has reached world-class standards.
In terms of inbound tourism in the tourism market, according to the statistics released by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, the number of inbound tourists in Taiwan exceeded 2 million in 1989, reaching 2,276,411 in 2002. In 2003, affected by the Iraq war and the SARS epidemic, the number of inbound tourists fell by 24.5%. It shows that the growth rate of the inbound tourism market is very slow. Compared with major tourist destinations in Asia such as Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea and Indonesia, the number of international visitors to Taiwan is significantly less. For example, compared with Hong Kong, Taiwan has far more space and population than Hong Kong. The types and quantity of tourism resources are not inferior, but tourists to Taiwan are only 20% of Hong Kong. The reason is that Taiwan is only satisfied with the leisure function of the people's island, and has long neglected to develop the tourism market to Taiwan.
In terms of outbound tourism, Taiwan opened its outbound tourism in 1979. By 2002, the number of outbound tourists reached 7.507 million, and it grew 500 times in 23 years. Since 2000, the annual exit rate of Taiwanese people has exceeded 20%. The average number of exits per person is about 0.4, and the number of stays is about 10 days. It can be seen that the growth of outbound tourism in Taiwan is fierce compared to the slow-growing inbound tourism. Such a large number of exits have caused an annual foreign exchange deficit of about $2.3 billion. Due to Taiwan’s investment in the mainland and the growth of cross-strait trade in recent years, nearly 50% of Taiwan’s outbound tourists travel to Hong Kong and Macao or enter Hong Kong and Macao through the mainland.
The tourism market in Taiwan Island has developed rapidly. According to the Taiwan Tourism Bureau's 2001 Survey of Tourism Status, the number of tourists on the island is 97.45 million. The total cost of tourism is about 241.7 billion yuan, and the travel rate of the people is 86.1%. People traveled 5.26 times, with an average stay of 1.7 days, and an average of 1.5 visits. Each person spent NT$2,840 per trip. In addition to the average daily cost per person, the number of days spent, and the number of visits to the site, other indicators are growing, indicating that the island's tourism market has considerable potential for continued growth.
Second, the enlightenment of the development of tourism in Fujian Province Looking at the history of Taiwan's tourism development, there are some successful experiences worthy of our attention:
First, the authorities play a leading role in the development of tourism. Mainly reflected in: 1. Implement key supporting measures to create a favorable external environment for tourism development. For example, since 2003, the authorities have implemented a “national tourist card” system for 600,000 civil servants, and created nearly 80 billion Taiwan dollars in that year. The amount of tourism spending on the island. 2. Strengthening industry management. On the one hand, through the improvement of the tourism administrative organization, the establishment of a system combining administrative management and industry self-discipline, on the other hand, through the promulgation of laws and regulations, strengthen the management of tourism enterprises. 3. Increase capital investment, develop and construct tourism resources and reception facilities. In recent years, the authorities have increased investment in infrastructure such as sightseeing Batu route, round-the-island trains, and tourist information service networks to improve the quality of tourism services. The authorities also implement public-private partnerships to encourage private capital to develop tourism policies. Medium- and long-term loans and investments are implemented by the authorities and public organizations. Short-term investments encourage private investment and are provided by the tourism management department.
The second is scientific planning and meticulous development, transforming the advantages of tourism resources into market advantages. 1. Scientific planning. As early as the 1970s, the authorities invited internationally renowned experts to visit Taiwan to inspect tourism resources, and compiled a comprehensive development plan for tourism in Taiwan, which divided the development and management of tourism resources in Taiwan. Recently, the “Set Tour Route Maintenance Mechanism” and “Sustainable Resources Sustainable Development Strategy” have been implemented to re-integrate and plan tourism resources to meet the needs of developing inbound tourism. 2. Highlight cultural and ecological themes and develop in-depth tourism and boutique tourism, such as the trip of silver-haired people and youth tourism. Golf tours, self-driving tours and other "exquisite tours", small train nostalgia trips, flower eco-agricultural specialties tours, aboriginal traditional festival tours, hot spring tours, diving trips and other theme tours, to enhance the taste of tourism. 3. Constantly innovate and develop new tourism products such as industrial tourism, agricultural tourism, and study tour to adapt to the diversified and personalized trend of market demand. The type structure of tourism products is obviously better than that of our province.
The third is to vigorously carry out publicity and promotion. The authorities pay more attention to the image promotion and brand building of tourist destinations, and the tourism companies closely cooperate to form an efficient tourism marketing network. Promotional means are also more diversified, such as the development of "International Tourism Promotion and Promotion Plan", inviting well-known media, travel writers and tour operators to visit Taiwan, to report and report; to set up a comprehensive identification mark at the airport and station to provide a travel service center to promote passengers. Tourism routes, attractions; use of the international Internet to carry out tourism propaganda and e-commerce, according to statistics in the Chinese-speaking Greater China circle, Taiwan's tourism e- rate is the first.
The fourth is to seek development in strengthening the alliance. In recent years, Taiwan's tourism industry has strengthened cooperation within and outside the industry in response to increasingly fierce market competition. For example, airlines, restaurants and travel agencies on the island work closely together to form a cooperative partnership. The combination of tourism and other industries and sectors has further broadened the market and produced synergistic development effects. The emerging industry, which is a combination of agriculture and tourism, is a successful example. At present, Taiwan's leisure farms receive 1 million tourists each day, accounting for 4.4% of Taiwan's population.
With the proposal of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government to build the strategic concept of the economic zone on the west side of the Straits, the status and role of the tourism industry are highly valued. Recently, the Provincial Party Committee Secretary Lu Zhanggong clearly pointed out that the future development of the tourism industry should be in line with the strategic conception of the construction of the economic zone on the west side of the Straits, and the tourism industry as one of the important contents of the construction of the economic zone on the west side of the Straits. As an emerging pillar industry to catch.
At present, the development of tourism in our province is very good. There are many new opportunities and favorable conditions, but it also faces many difficulties and challenges. For example, in 2003, the number of overseas tourists received by our province has been caught up and exceeded by Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The fourth place in the country that has been maintained for a long time has fallen to sixth place. On the whole, the regional competitiveness of tourism in our province is not strong, and the development stamina is insufficient. If measured by a comprehensive indicator of an industry, the industrial structure, industrial scale and industrial competitiveness of tourism in our province still have a large gap compared with some developed provinces. The main problems are: low level of tourism development, lack of large-scale projects and distinctive tourism products; single types of tourism products can not meet the diverse needs of modern tourists; tourism promotion and promotion are not enough, market visibility is not high; tourism enterprises are small, scattered, The phenomenon of weakness and badness is outstanding, and there are few leading enterprises; the "bottleneck" problem such as insufficient capital investment, lagging management system reform, and low-level employees are fundamentally restricting the sustainable development of tourism in our province. In response to these questions, the following recommendations are made.
Adhere to the government-led tourism development path The government-led is a tourism development path in line with China's national conditions. In response to the actual situation of our province, we must speed up the reform of the government's tourism management system, and establish a tourism industry development leading group in each key tourism development city to strengthen the government's leadership in tourism and solve the existing segment of tourism management, each of which is its main force and dispersed. The problem has formed a new pattern of “government-led, block-and-block, and departmental linkages”. The government must focus on increasing investment in tourism, especially in the construction of key tourism projects and the overall image of tourism. It is necessary to set up special funds and increase them year by year. In the construction of public goods, it is necessary to provide financial support. Vigorously expand investment and financing channels, guide and encourage private capital and foreign capital to invest in tourism, and promote the diversification of investment entities. It is suggested that the government actively take measures to promote the development of tourism enterprises, focus on cultivating a group of large-scale tourism groups with strong competitiveness and brand advantages, and truly handle the relationship between “government-led” and “enterprise entities”.
High-standard planning and development tourism The province's tourism industry should be guided by the market and competition, based on resource advantages, highlight regional characteristics, and do a good job in tourism planning and development. First of all, we must plan tourism with high standards and high starting points, and strive to solve the problem of planning lag in our province. The tourism planning requires “one chess game” in the whole province. The tourism development planning of each city, county and key areas should be linked with the overall tourism planning of the province, avoiding the adjustment of each singing and forming a coordinated and complete tourism planning system. The development of tourism products in our province has been in a low-level, small-scale decentralized state for a long time. It lacks large-scale, comprehensive, high-end and nationally attractive fist products. It is recommended that the government should concentrate on doing big things and implementing tourism quality strategy. And the project drives the strategy. Specifically, it is necessary to adapt to the requirements of the modern tourism market, re-integrate the tourism resources of the province, and selectively support the construction of a number of key tourism with outstanding themes, distinctive features and truly large-scale tourism in the “Three Tourism Centers” and “Five Zones and Two Belts”. The project strives to form a regional or national brand and promote the overall upgrading of tourism products in our province. It is necessary to pay attention to the in-depth development of tourism, highlight cultural and ecological themes, and develop more tourism projects that are both ornamental, entertaining and participatory; support the construction of a number of “National Industrial and Agricultural Tourism Demonstration Sites”, and develop new tourism products that are marketable. Optimize the structure of tourism products in our province.
Paying full attention to the overall marketing of Fujian tourism. The overall marketing of regional tourism is a successful experience in the developed countries and regions of tourism. Our province should concentrate on promoting the overall image and brand of Fujian tourism and improve the visibility of tourism in our province. It is necessary to innovate the market promotion mechanism, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the company, and promote the overall linkage marketing. It is necessary to comprehensively use various means to flexibly carry out tourism promotion and continuously explore the source market. In particular, it is necessary to speed up the process of tourism informationization, develop tourism e-commerce, and build a unified tourism destination marketing system throughout the province. It is recommended to hold the China International Tourism Festival on a regular basis, making it a platform for promoting and promoting Fujian tourism and connecting domestic and international tourism markets.
Adhere to the strategy of big tourism, big market and big alliance. In the future, the province should strengthen the cooperation between scenic spots, travel agencies, restaurants, tourism and transportation, and expand the tourism industry cluster; and also rely on mutual cooperation and penetration of tourism and other industries. Extend the industrial chain, make the various resources have a superposition effect, solve the problem of low shopping and entertainment consumption in the “six elements” of tourism in our province, and improve the comprehensive benefits of the tourism economy. To develop tourism, we must adhere to the strategy of regional integration and expand the three major tourism cooperation circles within the province, the province, and the international community. First of all, it is necessary to establish barrier-free tourist areas in the province, dilute the boundaries of administrative areas, realize the sharing of tourism resources, and form a unified large market. Fujian tourism will gradually integrate the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta tourist areas, and further explore the international market to enhance the overall competitiveness of the entire region.
III. Suggestions on Strengthening Tourism Cooperation between Fujian and Taiwan Fujian is separated from Taiwan by the sea. The compatriots on both sides of the strait have the same roots and ancestors. Whether it is geographical location, cultural heritage, economic and trade links, Fujian Province is the province with the closest contact between the mainland and Taiwan. This connection is not only the basis for tourism cooperation between Fujian and Taiwan, but also objectively promotes the two regions as a regional The development of tourism collections.
As pointed out by the leaders of Fujian Province, tourism to Taiwan is a prominent advantage of Fujian. It is necessary to put Taiwan tourism in a prominent strategic position to build a tourism cooperation zone between Fujian and Taiwan. Accelerating the pace of construction of the Fujian-Taiwan tourism cooperation zone is an important response to the major strategic measures for the construction of the economic zone on the west coast of the Taiwan Straits. It is of great strategic significance and reality to promote the rapid development of Fujian's tourism industry, achieve the goal of strengthening the province, and complete the great cause of the motherland's reunification at an early date. significance.
Since the Taiwan authorities have not fully opened up mainland Chinese tourists to Taiwan, the two sides have not yet achieved direct navigation. Therefore, the current tourism between Fujian and Taiwan is mainly based on the Taiwanese tourism, which presents a limited one-way tourism feature. However, it should be noted that the full opening of mainland Chinese tourists to Taiwan and direct cross-strait flights is the general trend. The so-called "green mountains can not cover, after all, eastward." When I was investigating on the island, I realized that Taiwan's tourism industry had an urgent expectation for the opening of mainland residents to Taiwan. They are actively calling on the Taiwan authorities to open up mainland residents' Taiwan tour as soon as possible. At the same time, they have begun to make frequent contacts with mainland counterparts and make preliminary arrangements. For example, since the beginning of 1998, the annual cross-strait tourism industry association activities have been held once a year. It has attracted more and more Taiwanese industry professionals to attend. Therefore, our province should make substantial planning, layout and step-by-step construction as soon as possible in order to promote the two-way interactive development of tourism between Fujian and Taiwan.
Tourism between Fujian and Taiwan should carry out exchanges and cooperation in an all-round and multi-angle, form a diversified regional tourism cooperation system, realize the sustainable development of tourism in the two places, enhance regional industrial competitiveness in the world tourism market, and achieve mutual benefit and common prosperity. purpose.
Strategic Collaborative Strategic Collaboration is an advanced form of the Fujian-Taiwan tourism cooperation zone, and it is a more long-term and substantial collaborative relationship. Strengthening the strategic cooperation between Fujian and Taiwan tourism can be considered from the following three aspects: First, the construction of the economic zone on the west bank of the Husbands, and building Fujian into a pioneering and demonstration zone for two-way cooperation with Taiwan. The main destination for compatriots to travel to the mainland, and the distribution center for mainland residents to travel to Taiwan. Secondly, it is the main component of the Greater China Tourism Circle. Third, within the framework of the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services, establish a tourism resource sharing and tourism investment advantage integration mechanism between the mainland and Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, break through barriers to entry and exit and trade barriers, build a regional free trade zone in China, and jointly address global economic integration and The challenge of fierce competition in the world tourism market.
Resources and product development Collaboration resources and product development collaboration are mainly reflected in joint market research, in-depth understanding of tourism market demand characteristics, targeted and focused development of tourism resources, and cooperation to establish a tourism product system that is adapted to diversified market needs. From the perspective of tourism development in Fujian Province, in order to better adapt to the changing needs of the Taiwan tourism market, it is necessary to adjust and update the tourism products that have been used for many years to create a more attractive Taiwan tourism product system. The first is to consolidate the root-seeking tourism and religious tourism brand-name products. Through the second development, the historical value and cultural connotation of resources are deeply explored to improve the cultural taste of the products, and the content is more abundant, the form is more lively, and the promotion is more targeted. The second is to develop holiday tourism products. In recent years, the proportion of holiday tourists in Taiwan has increased year by year. It is necessary to speed up the construction of Wuyishan and Weizhou Island, two state-level tourist resorts with high reputation in Taiwan, and focus on the construction of large-scale leisure and entertainment facilities suitable for vacations. The key is to have a clear theme, content to be enriched, and grades to be achieved. The world's advanced standards. The third is to develop diversified Taiwan-specific and special tourism projects, such as ecological, cultural, business, MICE tourism products and theme parks, food, health care, study, festivals, folk art, folk customs and other special tourism to adapt to travel ability. The demand for a strong new generation of tourists.
The government should guide the development of industrial tourism policies to guide more Taiwanese investment into the development and construction of tourism in our province, solve the bottleneck problem of capital shortage, and introduce the advanced management and management model and experience of Taiwan's tourism industry.
The cooperation between the source and the source market is first of all the mutual exchange of the first-class customers in Fujian and Taiwan. According to the law of tourism development, the surrounding market is always the focus of a country or region to develop tourism. The total population of our province is more than 34.7 million, and the total population of Taiwan is more than 23 million. The high level of economic development in the two places, coupled with the closeness of blood relatives and location, is very conducive to the formation of two-way tourist flows. The second is the exchange of two-level passengers between Fujian and Taiwan. According to statistics, in recent years, Taiwan has received an average of 240,400 overseas tourists per year. The number of overseas tourists receiving the province has also increased year by year, and it is close to receiving 1 million people a year. If we can strengthen the cooperation of customers and send tourists to each other, this part is a source market with considerable potential for both Fujian and Taiwan. Third, collaborate to develop an international source market. On the basis of integrating the advantages of their respective tourism resources, the two places can jointly assemble and package the whole tourism products, form the “Ministry of Taiwan and Taiwan” brand, jointly promote the promotion of the international market and increase the market share. As a first step, the two places can use various media to carry out peer-to-peer promotion and promotion, enhance their influence in the collaborative area, and cultivate market growth points. On this basis, jointly promote the promotion and promotion of the foreign-source market outside the region. The overall image of the tourism cooperation zone.
Exchanges and Collaboration in the Industry First, we will continue to conduct visits and visits between Fujian and Taiwan, strengthen private cooperation between the tourism industry and industry associations in Fujian and Taiwan, and strive to establish tourism offices. The second is to set up the Fujian-Taiwan Tourism Association, which will regularly hold meetings between the two places to establish a stable channel of contact in the industry to strengthen friendship. Interoperate with information, share resources, and facilitate transactions. The third is to establish a “Taiwan Tourism Information Network” through the international Internet network, exchange travel information, including basic information and electronic maps of Fujian and Taiwan tourism, create a common publicity platform, and provide tourism routes for tourists. Convenient services such as hotel reservations, ticket reservations, etc., lay the foundation for the future realization of tourism electronic transactions.
The focus of current cooperation should be to achieve two-way tourism between Fujian and Kinmen, Mazu and Wuhu as soon as possible. Based on the Hong Kong-Taiwan tourism cooperation agreement, the “Hong Kong and Taiwan Tourism Promotion Conference” will be held once a year as an opportunity. Substantial cooperation in joint promotion, mutual customer visits, and industry exchanges.

references:
1 Tang Junya: “Building a Diversified Regional Tourism Collaboration System between Fujian and Taiwan”, World Geography Research, 2002, 3.
2 Chen Yuanyong: “Overview of the Development of Tourism and Tourism Industry in Taiwan”, Fujian Social Science Information, 2003, 4.