The research purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of city marketing initiatives on the travel decision of domestic and international tourists who have visited Taiwan. Although the urban government has set a goal and made an effort to publici...
The research purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of city marketing initiatives on the travel decision of domestic and international tourists who have visited Taiwan. Although the urban government has set a goal and made an effort to publicize Taipei as a ‘Must Visit City in Asia’, studies on city marketing of Taiwan are still lacking. In particular, the legalization of same-sex marriage has contributed to forming an inclusive and multicultural city image for Taipei. This paper aims to investigate how Taiwan’s city marketing initiatives impacted the travel decisions of domestic and international tourists based on a case study of Taipei.
To do so, an extensive literature review and empirical analysis have been undertaken to reach the proposed research aims. The previous studies on the concept and sub-dimension of city marketing initiatives have been accordingly reviewed and defined. The questionnaire is designed with considering identified sub-dimension of city marketing initiatives and distributed to domestic and international tourists. The findings of this study can be summarized as follows. First, Taipei’s historical and cultural landscape and local specialties are more attractive for international tourists than domestic tourists. In addition, the inclusive and smart city image showed a more substantial influence on the travel motivation of domestic tourists than international tourists. Second, the international tourists showed lower awareness of the slogan and character of Taipei. In particular, the empirical analysis showed that the international tourists are not familiar with Taipei’s city marketing approaches, like the slogan and character of the city. This indicated that the strategic tourism promotion campaigns should focus on drawing the attention of international tourists. Third, domestic and international tourists are well aware of the infrastructure supply in Taipei, which showed significant influence on their travel motivations. As such, the Taipei government should make continuous efforts to improve the urban infrastructure and increase the attractiveness of the city.
Key words : City Marketing, Taiwan, Travel Motivation, City Image, Communication, Infrastructure