Resumen de Destination image and visit intention Among members of "Yahoo!-Taiwan's" travel communities: an online survey approach
Yueh-Hsiu (Pearl) Lin, Chin-Yuan Wu, Janet Chang
Prior research has long indicted a distinct relationship between tourists' purchasing behaviors and their perceptions of the target destination. While investigations of this phenomenon have gained popularity in the increasingly competitive global marketplace, research of this nature is still new to developing tourism locations such as Taiwan. The present study addresses this gap by using online surveys to explore the destination images and visit intentions of members of Yahoo!-Taiwan's travel communities regarding Hualien, a pristine county located on Taiwan's relatively isolated east coast. A total of 1011 respondents completed the online survey and 993 usable questionnaires were collected. In total, 25 image attributes of Hualien were identified and analyzed into four factors. Regression analysis identified four attributes that contribute to a positive influence and one negative attribute that has a strong influence on future visit intentions. The study concludes with a discussion of the research limitations, suggestions for future research, and implications for promotion of peripheral tourism areas such as the one described.
