The willingness of heritage tourists to pay for perceived authenticity in Pingxi,Taiwan

Authenticity plays an important role in heritage tourism. Previous studies have employed secondary data to assess the value of authenticity. This study goes further and empirically measures the intrinsic value of authenticity directly by integrating both qualitative and quantitative methods. The study was conducted in Pingxi, Taiwan and used open-ended questions to guide respondents to construct their own perceived authenticity. The respondents were asked whether they were willing to pay for what they had described. Four hundred and three valid responses were obtained. By using the dichotomous choice method and logistic distribution function, the willingness to pay (WTP) was estimated as NT$233. The study compiled 15 items to measure perceived authenticity based on previous literature and on-site visitor surveys. Three factors were derived by employing exploratory factor and confirmatory factor analyses. Discriminant analysis showed that intra-personal authenticity has a greater impact on WTP than object-related and inter-personal authenticity. This study might be the first empirical study to propose three independent concepts of authenticity, and to estimate the intrinsic value of perceived authenticity. The paper concludes suggestions that contribute both to theories of authenticity and applications by heritage management agencies.     

To go or not to go: travel constraints and attractiveness of travel affecting outbound Chinese tourists to Japan

The fast growth of the Chinese economy has transformed Chinese outbound tourism into one of the major players in the tourism industry worldwide. However, Chinese outbound tourists may still encounter travel constraints in some countries, such as Japan, which has had a close and complicated relationship in history with China. This study adopted the qualitative approach by applying focus group and in-depth interviews to investigate and triangulate the travel barriers affecting Chinese outbound travel to Japan. The findings indicated that domestic nationalist sentiment played a key constraining role in influencing Chinese outbound travel decision-making, followed by current political factors, while quality products and service, as well as social environment encouraged tourists to travel. This research also found that visitors and non-visitors have perception differences in terms of travel barriers and attractiveness of travel.     

我国区域旅游空间结构演化的微观机理与动态模拟研究

本文在垄断竞争、规模经济、交通成本、消费者多样化偏好以及旅游产品和服务差异化的两区域旅游空间结构模型的基础上,提出了经济学演绎模型与基于自主体(agent)的计算实验相结合的研究路径,通过对旅游企业、消费者等大量微观自主体的相互作用来"动态地"观察和探讨沿海与内地两区域旅游空间结构变动的微观基础、影响因素和动态过程.本文认为,研究区域旅游空间结构及其演化机理,空间经济学演绎模型与推导→基于agent的地理计算→实证分析与计量检验,是一个值得探索的技术路线.     

Impact of financial/economic crisis on demand for hotel rooms in Hong Kong

The main objectives of this study are (1) to identify the factors that influence the demand for hotel rooms in Hong Kong and (2) to generate quarterly forecasts of that demand to assess the impact of the ongoing financial/economic crisis. The demand for four types of hotel room from the residents of nine major origin countries is considered, and forecasts are generated from the first quarter of 2009 to the fourth quarter of 2015. Econometric approaches are employed to calculate the demand elasticities and their corresponding confidence intervals, which are then used to generate interval demand predictions. The empirical results reveal that the most important factors in determining the demand for hotel rooms in Hong Kong are the economic conditions (measured by income level) in the origin markets, the price of the hotel rooms and the ‘word of mouth’ effect. Demand for High Tariff A and Medium Tariff hotel rooms is estimated to have experienced negative annual growth in 2009 due to the influence of the financial/economic crisis, whereas that for High Tariff B hotel rooms is thought to have grown in 2009 after having decreased in 2008. The demand for tourist guesthouse rooms is expected to be the least affected by the crisis. Overall demand is predicted to recover gradually from 2010 onwards.     

Assessment of the Partnership Quality between Travel Agencies and Health Care Organizations on the International Medical Tourism Market in Taiwan

The medical tourism literature lacks insight into related issues of these types of partnerships. Those that integrate multiple perspectives into one research framework are especially rare. This study evaluated and compared the influence of external environment uncertainty, trust, and resource dependence perspectives on the quality of interorganizational partnerships in the international medical tourism market and quantified these elements using external environment uncertainty assessment on the international medical tourism development. The research sample was based on a survey from 161 travel agency managers in Taiwan. This study found that external environment uncertainty has direct negative impact on trust and resource dependence has a positive influence on interorganizational partnership. Moreover, trust has a significant impact on partnership quality while resource dependence does not. Therefore, medical travel agents should extend their network of trustworthy health care organization partners in order to improve performance, decrease their self-risk, collect information, and avoid missed opportunities.     

基于车辆数据的k近邻联合概率数据关联算法

在交通场景中采用一些预警措施能够有效地减少交通事故发生。例如,对车辆轨迹进行跟踪并预测车辆的驾驶行为,就是一个常用的预警方法。在对车辆进行跟踪的过程中,数据关联是很重要的部分,它可以对车辆的观测点和轨迹进行关联,从而更新车辆的轨迹,完成跟踪过程。在此背景下,提出了一种新的数据关联算法,即k近邻联合概率数据关联算法(k Nearest Neighbor-Joint Probability Data Association,kNN-JPDA)。实验结果表明,该算法能够较好地解决在交通场景下车辆数据的数据关联问题,在精度以及运行效率方面都有所提高。     

简论人才流动政策的调整

人才单向流动不利于经济社会科学发展,规范和引导政府、用人单位、中介组织和人才的行为,建立互相衔接的社会保险制度,改革档案管理制度,打破身份界限,改革住房制度,建立统一的人才市场,完善人才中介服务等,确保人才“全方位自由流动”,实现人才与组织及其工作岗位的合理配置,是推动经济社会可持续发展的根本要求。     

中国的经济发展战略与地区收入差距

本文认为 ,当前中国大陆各省区市之间发展水平差距的主要原因在于 ,重工业优先发展的赶超战略下形成的生产要素存量配置结构 ,与许多省区市的要素禀赋结构决定的比较优势相违背 ,从而导致大量的赶超企业缺乏自生能力。基于各省区市的数据进行的实证研究与我们的假说相容。     

Industry-region Position and Economic Performance of Travel and Tourism Service Industry: An Agglomeration Perspective

Numerous studies have attempted to examine industry performance from an agglomeration perspective. However, many are still focused on the manufacturing sector. This study examines the travel and tourism service industry's economic position using an agglomeration perspective and whether this relates to its economic performance. This study discovered that, apart from being related to its intra-region position relative to other industries within the region, the economic performance of an industry in a region is also related to its intra-industry position relative to other distributive regions within the industry and to its national geographical concentration. A more significant finding is that regardless of either the intra-industry or intra-region position of the industry in a region, enhancing agglomeration not only increases competition and profit erosion but also improves labour productivity. For employment creation, it is more effective to develop an industry with more uniform national geographical distribution.     

Accessing Tourists’ Unconscious Associations about International Destinations: Data Fuzzification of Reaction Times in the Implicit Association Test

Starting with the proposition that shorter reaction time implies stronger implicit preference, this study assesses destination-related top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) by examining respondent reaction time to specific destination icons. A total 87 college students were recruited to complete self-report surveys and computer-based implicit association tests (IAT). The results show that participants’ responses vary depending on the two measures (i.e., self-report surveys and IATs). Through a data fuzzification method, the study demonstrates that the IAT would enhance our understanding of tourist TOMA, particularly related to familiarity issues. The implications of the study pertain to destination marketing are fully discussed.