2010 Survey of Travel by R.O.C Citizens
Executive Summary
Following the recovery of the global economy and good planning by the government to promote tourism, the domestic tourism industry has walked out from the depression of 2008 and 2009. Based on the data published by the Tourism Bureau, revenue of Amusement Park Industry and Tourist Hotel Industry in 2010 increased 20% over that of 2009. Nine day long Lunar New Year Holiday plus no serious damager suffered during the summer vacationof July and August, really increased citizen’s opportunities to travel.“Taiwan Tourist shuttle services” that promoted by Tourism Bureauwas supplying the convenient transportation and the fair-price travel service.”2010 Selection of Specialty Night Markets” on the Internet, attracted 500,000 people to vote on the internet. This activity not only capitalized the special night market culture in Taiwan, it also promoted the tourism value of Taiwan Night Markets and its international recognition. Also, “2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition” which opened on November 6 and lasted through the year end of 2010, attracted 3,000,000 visitors. There and other large scale activities and tourism policies, really increased citizen’s desire to travel significantly.
The objectives of this study are to understand, in 2010, citizens’ traveling activities, degree of satisfaction and amounts spent on different types of vacationexpenses on each trip; and to learn the mutual effects of domestic tourism and outbound travels. It also provides estimates on domestic tourism expenditures and foreign exchange spent on oversea travels. The results of this study provide policy makers needed information on developing new tourist facilities, improving traveling environments, upgrading the quality of tourism and initiating new tourism policies. The population of this survey includes all R.O.C. citizens who were 12 years or older in 2010. The survey period covered from January1, 2010 through December 31, 2010.
This survey was designed primarily to collect domestic tourism data. However, outbound traveling data was also collected as a secondary objective. The survey interviews were conducted by telephone, using a computer-assisted telephone interviewing system (CATI). A stratified random sampling was used to select the sample. The total initial sample was divided into four panels; and a rotation scheme was instituted so that each sample person was interviewed once every quarter for four consecutive quarters. However, sample of each quarter composed of four panels that first panel was interviewed the first time; second panel was interviewed the second time; third panel was interviewed the third time; and the fourth panel was interviewed the fourth time. The numbers of completed domestic tourism interviews were as follows: first quarter 5,567 persons, second quarter 5,572 persons, third quarter 5,559 persons and fourth quarter 5,572 persons. The completed outbound interviews were fewer: first quarter 380 persons, second quarter 414 persons, third quarter 471 persons and fourth quarter 401 persons.
The survey results are summarized in the following in two parts:important indexes of domestic and outbound travels and statistical analysis.
I、Important Indexes of Domestic and Outbound Travels
A. R.O.C. Citizens’ Domestic Tourist Travel Index
Table 1 R.O.C. Citizens’ Domestic Tourist Travel Index
Item / 2010 / 2009 / ChangeProportion of people taking domestic tourist travel / 93.9% / 93.4% / No significant change
Average number of trips per person / 6.08trips / 4.85trips / An increase of 1.23 trips
Total number of trips / 123,937,000 trips / 97,990,000 trips / An increase of26.5%
Average number of days per trip / 1.49 days / 1.49 days / No significant change
Percentages of trips taken during holidays and weekends / 71.9% / 73.2% / A decrease of1.3%
Over all degree of satisfaction / 98.0% / 98.1% / No significant change
Average expenses
per person day on trip / NT$1,289
(US$40.80) / NT$1,252
(US$38.12) / NT：An increase of2.9%
(US：An increase of7.0%)
Average expenses
per person trip / NT$1,921
(US$60.81) / NT$1,866
(US$56.81) / NT：An increase of2.9%
(US：An increase of7.0%)
Total expenditure of domestic travels / NT$238.1 billions
(US$7.537 billions) / NT$182.8 billions
(US$5.569 billions) / NT：An increase of30.3%
(US：An increase of35.3%)
Note: 1.The population of this survey includes all R.O.C. citizens who were 12 years or older.
2. “No significant change” means there is no significant difference under significance level
3. Proportion of people taking domestic tourist travel means the proportion of people who at least took one time
domestic travel during this year.
4. Average expensesper person day on trip= Average expensesper person trip/ Average number of days per trip.
B. R.O.C. Citizens’ Outbound Travel Index
Table2 R.O.C. Citizens’ Outbound Travel Index
Item / 2010 / 2009 / ChangeProportion of people taking outbound travels / 20.1% / 17.5% / An increase of 2.6%
Total number of trips / 9,415,074 trips / 8,142,946 trips / An increase of15.6%
Average number of outbound trips per person / 0.41 trip / 0.35 trip / An increase of 0.06 trip
Average number of nights per trip / 929 nights / 9.71 nights / A decrease of 0.42 nights
Average expenditure per person trip / NT$46,434
(US$1,470) / NT$45,030
(US$1,371) / NT$: No significant change
(US$: An increase of7.2%)
Total expenditure on outbound travels / NT$437.1 billions
(US$13.836 billions) / NT$366.7 billions
(US$11.164 billions) / NT$: An increase of19.2%
(US$: An increase of23.9%)
Note:：1.The data source of total number of trips and the average number of nights per trip: Monthly Statistics onTourism.
2. “No significant change” means there is no significant difference under significance level.
3. Proportion of people taking outbound travels means the proportion of people who at least took one time
outbound travel during this year.
4.Average number of outbound trips per person = total number of outbound trips (the year 2010 was 9,415,074)
/the average of 12 months total population in Taiwan (the year 2010 was 23,141,201).
5. Average expenditure per person trip is estimated based only on trips with 60 nights or fewer.
6. Exchange rate is the average of 12 months spot exchange rate N.T/$ of that year.
II、Statistical Analysis
A. Domestic Travels
- In 2010, 93.9%of citizens had domestic travels, no significant change from 2009: According to the survey,in 2010 93.9% of the citizens had had at least one domestic travel. Compared with 2009, there was no significant difference from that of 2009.
Table3 Proportions of People taking Domestic Tourist Travel
Unit: %
Year / 1st Quarter / 2nd Quarter / 3rd Quarter / 4th Quarter / Whole Year(1st Quarter~4th Quarter)
2010 / 72.9 / 66.8 / 65.2 / 67.3 / 93.9
2009 / 70.8 / 66.7 / 65.0 / 65.9 / 93.4
Note: Proportion of people taking domestic tourist travel means the proportion of people who
at least took one time domestic travel during this year.
.
- The estimated total number of domestic tourist trips reached 123.94 millions, anincrease of 26.5% from the previous year: According to the survey, the average number of trips per person during the year 2010 was 6.08( an increase of 1.23 trips from4.85 in 2009). The estimated total number of domestic tourist trips taken by citizens of 12years or older was 123,937,000 trips. And the total number of trips traveled by all citizens was estimated at 144,368,000trips.
Table4 Average number of domestic trips per person
Unit: Frequency
Year / 1st Quarter / 2nd Quarter / 3rd Quarter / 4th Quarter / Whole Year2010 / 1.62 / 1.51 / 1.50 / 1.45 / 6.08
2009 / 1.42 / 1.10 / 1.21 / 1.12 / 4.85
- 6%of people did not take any domestic tourist travel; and “Wished to travel but did not have time”was the main reason for people not having domestic travel: In 2010, the leading reason for not taking domestic travel was “Wished to travel but did not have time”(42%); the second major reasons were “Wished to travel butcould not afford”(20%)、“Not interested” (18%) and “Wished to travel buthad poor health” (16%). Compared with 2009, the reason for not traveling was no significant difference from 2009.
Table 5 Reasons for not traveling
Unit: %
Item / 2010 / 2009Total / 100.0 / 100.0
Wished to travel but did not have time / 41.6 / 40.1
Wished to travel butcould not afford / 20.4 / 20.4
Not interested / 17.9 / 18.8
Wished to travel buthad poor health / 15.7 / 14.8
Wished to travel butcould not find companions / 1.9 / 1.9
Wished to travel but did not know good tourist places / 1.2 / 1.5
Wished to travel but weather werepoor / 1.1 / 0.5
Outbound travel / — / 1.4
Wished to travel but tourist placeswere too crowded / 0.3
Wished to travel buthad transportation problem / — / —
Wished to travel but had accommodation problem / — / —
Other reasons / 0.2 / 0.5
Note:“—” means no sample in the cell.
- Most of the domestic tourist trips were taken on weekends, Domestic tourist trips made on weekdays increased. The major purpose of the domestic travels was “sightseeing, recreation, vacation”: 60% of the domestic tourist trips were taken on weekends, a decrease of 1% fromthat of 2009；28% of domestic trips were taken on weekdays, an increase of 1% from that of 2009. As for the purposes of the domestic travels,79% were for “sightseeing, recreation, vacation”, followed by “visiting friends and relatives”(20%).Compared with 2009, “PureSightseeing, Recreation, Vacation” had a decrease of 1% from 2009; “Ecological tours” had an increase of 2% from 2009.
Table 6 Day Used For Domestic Tourist Travel
Unit: %
Day of Travel / 2010 / 2009Total / 100.0 / 100.0
National Holidays / Sub Total / 11.8 / 12.0
New year holiday* / 0.8 / 0.6
Lunar New Year holidays* / 8.4 / 7.1
Tomb sweeping Festival / 2.0 / —
Dragon boat Festival* / — / 1.2
Other national holidays / 0.6 / 3.1
Weekends / 60.1 / 61.2
Weekdays / Sub Total / 28.1 / 26.8
Annual leaves / 9.1 / 8.6
Summer or winter breaks / 1.4 / 2.5
Other weekdays / 17.6 / 15.7
Note: 1.”*” means National Holidays which included long weekend holidaysduring this year,
“—” means did not include long weekend holidays in this year.
2. Other national holidays mean the national holidaysdid not include long weekend.
3. There were 17 national holidays, 96 weekend-days, and 252 weekdays in 2010.
Table 7 Purposes of Domestic Tourist Travels
Unit:%
Purpose of the Trip / 2009 / 2009Total / 100.0 / 100.0
Sightseeing, Recreation, Vacation / Sub Total / 79.4 / 79.5
PureSightseeing, Recreation, Vacation / 64.5 / 65.9
Physical exercising vacations / 4.7 / 5.4
Ecological tours / 4.3 / 2.6
Conferenceor Studying Tour / 1.4 / 1.0
Religious travels / 4.5 / 4.6
Business and tourist travel / 0.9 / 0.9
Visiting friends and relatives / 19.6 / 19.2
Others / 0.1 / 0.4
- 63% of the trips weretaken within the living region of the travelers；70% of the domestic tourist trips were one-day trips and theaverage duration of a trip was 1.49 days: For the year 2010, about 63% of the trips weretaken within the living region of the travelers (not significantlydifferent from thatof 2009); observing based on traveler’sresidence region, we found that in all regions, most of the trips were conducted within the same region that they live in, especially in the north region (65%)and south region (64%). As for duration of the trips, most of them (70%) were one-day trips, followed by 19% of two-day trips, 8% of three-day trips, and 3% of four-day or more trips. Average duration of a trip was 1.49 days, not significantlydifferent from 1.49 daysof 2009.
Table 8 2010 Proportion of Tourists Visited Each Region
by Region of Residence
Unit: Row %
Region VisitedResidence / North
Region / Central
Region / South
Region / East
Region / Kin-Mar
Region
North Region / 65.4 / 21.8 / 12.1 / 4.2 / 0.1
Central Region / 21.0 / 59.7 / 18.6 / 3.2 / 0.2
South Region / 13.3 / 20.7 / 64.0 / 4.4 / 0.1
East Region / 26.3 / 17.8 / 20.7 / 45.2 / 0.5
Kim-Mar Region / 31.6 / 3.4 / 7.5 / 3.4 / 56.8
Over All / 39.7 / 31.0 / 27.4 / 4.8 / 0.4
Note: 1.This item was multi-choice
2. The percentage of the trips taken within the living region of the travelers (63%) = the total number of the trips conducted within the same region that they live in /total person-trips in 2010.
Table 9 Distribution on Duration of Tourist Trips
Unit: %
Number of Days Traveled / 2010 / 2009Total / 100.0 / 100.0
1 Day / 70.0 / 70.5
2 Days / 19.4 / 18.8
3 Days / 7.6 / 7.6
4 days or more / 3.0 / 3.1
Average duration of each trip / 1.49days / 1.49days
- Most ofover-night tourists stayed in hotels or friend’s orrelative’s places:According to the survey, in domestic trips, 70% of them were same-day returns.13% stayed in hotels,10% in friend’s orrelative’s places, and 6% in home stays. The percentages of other types of accommodation were very low. Compared with 2009, there was no significantly different from that of 2009.
Table 10 Distribution of Accommodation Choices
Unit: %
Accommodation Choice / 2010 / 2009Total / 100.0 / 100.0
Same-day return / 70.0 / 70.5
Hotel / 12.6 / 12.4
Friend’s orrelative’s places / 10.3 / 10.4
Home stays / 5.7 / 5.1
Reception house or activity center / 0.9 / 0.9
Camping / 0.5 / 0.6
Others / 0.1 / 0.1
- 88% of the tourist trips were completely planned by tourists’ themselves, only 3% of the domestic tourist trips planned by travel agencies: Majority of the tourists planned their trips completely by themselves (88%), while other types of planning were each used by less than 6% of the tourists. Only 3% of the domestic tourist trips were planned by travel agencies. The major reasons for joining the package tours planned by travel agencies was “Attractiveness of the package tour’s content”(59%) and “save planning time”(47%).The major reasons for choosing a particular the travel agency were “friends recommendation”(42%)、“reasonable prices”(36%) and “Participating the trips that planned by the same agency before”(30%).
Table 11 Types of Travels
Unit: %
Types of Travels / 2010 / 2009Total / 100.0 / 100.0
Tours planned by tourists’ themselves / 88.4 / 89.0
Tours planned by employers / 2.6 / 2.2
Tours planned by schools or classes / 1.6 / 1.2
Tours planned by religion groups / 1.5 / 1.6
Package tours by travel agencies / 0.5 / 0.6
Tours planned by other groups / 5.5 / 5.4
Tours planned by village community or senior citizen groups / 2.5
Tours planned by civic associations / 2.2
Tours planned by other groups / 0.7
Others / 0.0 / 0.0
Note:1. “0.0”means the percentage was under 0.05.
2.In 2010,tours planned by other groups included “Tours planned by village community or senior
citizen groups”、“Tours planned bycivic associations”and “Tours planned by other groups”.
Table 12 whether planned by travel agencies
Unit: %
Whether planned by travel agencies / 2010 / 2009Total / 100.0 / 100.0
planned by travel agencies / 3.4 / 3.8
Not planned by travel agencies / 96.6 / 96.2
Table 13 Reasons for joining the package tours planned by travel agencies
Unit: %
Reasons for joining the package tours planned by travel agencies / 2010Attractiveness of the package tour’s content / 58.7
save planning time / 47.2
Do not have to drive / 38.3
Attractiveness of the price / 31.9
Lackthe transportationto thescenic site / 18.0
Others / 4.9
Note: This item was multi-choice.
Table 14Reasons for choosing the particular travel agency
Unit: %
Types of Travels / 2010Friends recommendation / 41.9
Reasonable prices / 35.8
Participating the trips that planned by the same agency before / 30.0
Good reputation and high popularity / 15.5
only one agency offering such traveling schedule / 8.6
Others / 4.1
Note: This item was multi-choice.
- “Friends, relatives, colleagues or classmates” was the major source of travel information obtained by tourists: As for travel information, 51% of tourists obtained travel information from “friends, relatives, colleagues or classmates”, the second source was“Internet”(33%), followed by electronicmedia(12%). Compared with 2009, “Internet” and “electronicmedia” had an increase of 3% respectively from 2009; while “friends, relatives, colleagues or classmates” had a decrease of 2%.
Table 15 Sources of Travel Information
Unit: %
Information Sources / 2010 / 2009Friends,Relatives,Colleagues, Classmates / 50.7 / 53.1
Internet / 32.9 / 30.2
Electronic Media / 14.3 / 11.8
Print Media / 8.3 / 8.2
Travel Agencies / 2.2 / 2.4
Tourism Bureau or Agencies / 2.4 / 2.3
Tourism Shows or Exhibits / 0.8 / 0.8
Others / 0.4 / 0.7
Note: 1.This item was multi-choice .Tourists who did not obtain travel information were excluded.
2. Electronic Media includes television, broadcasting, and billboard, etc.
3. Print Media includes traveling books, newspapers, and magazines, etc.
- 5% of tourists had purchased traveling related products through internet, and less than 1% of tourists had purchased traveling related products through TV shopping channels: There were 5%of tourists had purchased traveling related products through internet, most of them were hotel reservations, and less than 1% of tourists had purchased traveling related products through TV shopping channels.
Table 16 Purchasing Traveling Related Products through Internet
Unit: %
Situations / 2010 / 2009Total / 100.0 / 100.0
Did not purchase through internet / 95.1 / 95.3
Purchased through internet / 4.9 / 4.7
Purchase
items
(multi-choice) / Hotel reservations / 3.7 / 3.4
Purchased
Train ticket / TaiwanRailway / 0.6 / 0.6
Taiwan High Speed Rail / 0.4 / 0.5
Purchased package tours / 0.2 / 0.2
Purchased amusement park tickets / 0.2 / 0.1
Purchased plane tickets / 0.1 / 0.1
Others / 0.1 / 0.2
Note: The purchase percentage of the item =the number of person-trips that did purchase the
items/total number of person-trips.
Table 17 Purchasing Traveling Related Products through TV shopping channels
Unit: %
Situations / 2010Total / 100.0
Did not purchase through TV shopping channels / 99.8
Purchased through TV shopping channels / 0.2
Purchase
items
(multi-choice) / Hotel reservations / 0.1
Purchased package tours / 0.1
Others / ─
Note: The purchase percentage of the item =the number of person-trips that did purchase the
items/total number of person-trips.
- “Convenient transportation connection” was the most important factor considered by the tourists when they chose visiting places: The most important factor considered by the tourists when they chose visiting places was “Convenient transportation connection”; the second factor was“Theme activities”, while“Never been there or curiosity” and“testing delicious food”were ranked third.
Table 18 Thetourists’ considerations while choosing the travel place
(Degree of importance)
Unit: %
Considerations / 2010Total / 100.0
Convenient transportation connection / 35.6(1)
Theme activities / 19.5(2)
Never been there or curiosity / 12.1(3)
Testing delicious food / 11.6(3)
Children’s preferences / 7.2(5)
Visiting exhibitions / 4.5(6)
New attractions, new facilities / 4.4(6)
Elder’s preferences / 3.2(8)
Health care or medical treatment / 1.1(9)
Others / 0.8
Note: 1.Number inside parenthesis indicates the ranking in the importance of considerations when the travelers choose the places to visit.
2. The same ranking number means the degrees of importance of the items have no significantdifferenceunder significance level
3. Others included discount coupons, annual fixed trips, etc.
- “Natural scenery sightseeing activities” was the highest, among the activitiesparticipated by the tourists: Among tourists’ major activities, the percentage of the “natural scenery sightseeing activities” (54%) was the highest. Looking into the detail items,” testing local delicacies ”(32%) and “sightseeing coastal geological scenery, wetland ecology, rural scenery, river, lakes and waterfall, etc”(32%) had the highest percentage of participation by the tourist, followed by “shopping”(28%). As for tourists’ favorite activities, again the percentage of the “natural scenery sightseeing activities” (42%) was the highest. Looking into the detail items, “sightseeing coastal geological scenery, wetland ecology, rural scenery, river, lakes and waterfall, etc”(17%) had the highest percentage, followed by “forest hiking, mountain climbing, camping,”(15%), and ” testing local delicacies ”(12%).
Table 19 The tourists’ main activities