The preference analysis for tourist choice of destination: A case study of Taiwan

Abstract This study identifies the factors that influence the tourists' choice of destination and evaluates the preferences of tourists for destinations. A 4-level AHP model, consisting of 22 attributes on the 4th level, was proposed and tested using data collected from tourists visiting Taiwan to establish the relative importance of pre-selected factors (criteria). By using fuzzy set theory and TOPSIS, the preference of 8 given destinations corresponding to each criterion can be evaluated and given final ranking. Results indicate that visiting friends/relatives and personal safety appear to be the 2 most important factors for inbound tourists to Taiwan, price is the least important and Taipei 101 is the first priority for travelers.

[1]  Madan M. Gupta,et al.  Fuzzy Sets, Fuzzy Logic, and Fuzzy Systems , 2003 .

[2]  Lotfi A. Zadeh,et al.  Fuzzy Logic for Business, Finance, and Management , 1997, Advances in Fuzzy Systems - Applications and Theory.

[3]  Chris Cooper,et al.  Understanding holiday choice. , 1991 .

[4]  John L. Crompton,et al.  CHOICE SET PROPOSITIONS IN DESTINATION DECISIONS , 1993 .

[5]  M. Uysal,et al.  Testing the push and pull factors , 1994 .

[6]  M. Uysal,et al.  Product bundles and market segments based on travel motivations: a canonical correlation approach. , 1995 .

[7]  Lotfi A. Zadeh,et al.  The linguistic approach and its application to decision analysis , 1996 .

[8]  C. Ryan.  The tourist experience: a new introduction. , 1997 .

[9]  Josefa D. Martín,et al.  Tourists' characteristics and the perceived image of tourist destinations : a quantitative analysis-a case study of Lanzarote, Spain , 2004 .

[10]  William C. Gartner,et al.  Preferences and trip expenditures - a conjoint analysis of visitors to Seoul, Korea. , 2004 .

[11]  Blair F. Stevens.  Price Value Perceptions of Travelers , 1992 .

[12]  Ching-Lai Hwang,et al.  Multiple Attribute Decision Making: Methods and Applications - A State-of-the-Art Survey , 1981, Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems.

[13]  T. Lam,et al.  An analysis of Mainland Chinese visitors’ motivations to visit Hong Kong , 1999 .

[14]  Ning Wang,et al.  Towards a structural model of the tourist experience: an illustration from food experiences in tourism. , 2004 .

[15]  Chris Cooper,et al.  Progress in tourism, recreation and hospitality management , 1994 .

[16]  D. Pearce,et al.  Tourist time-budget , 1988 .

[17]  Luis G. Vargas,et al.  The theory of ratio scale estimation: Saaty's analytic hierarchy process , 1987 .

[18]  A. Pizam,et al.  The Role of Awareness and Familiarity with a Destination: The Central Florida Case , 1995 .

[19]  Catherine K. Murphy,et al.  LIMITS ON THE ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS FROM ITS CONSISTENCY INDEX , 1993 .

[20]  M. Uysal,et al.  Market Segmentation of European and Turkish Travels to North Cyprus , 1998 .

[21]  Lotfi A. Zadeh,et al.  Fuzzy Sets , 1996, Inf. Control..

[22]  A. Pizam,et al.  Consumer Behavior in Travel and Tourism , 1999 .

[23]  J. Clarke,et al.  Marketing in travel and tourism , 1988 .

[24]  Dimitrios Buhalis.  Marketing the competitive destination of the future. , 2000 .

[25]  C. Goossens.  Tourism information and pleasure motivation , 2000 .

[26]  W. Fred van Raaij,et al.  Consumer research on tourism: mental and behavioral constructs. , 1986 .

[27]  Saul I. Gass,et al.  The Analytic Hierarchy Process - An Exposition , 2001, Oper. Res..

[28]  M. Uysal,et al.  An examination of the effects of motivation and satisfaction on destination loyalty: a structural model , 2005 .

[29]  Robert W. Armstrong,et al.  Leisure Travel Destination Choice Criteria of Hong Kong Residents , 1995 .

[30]  J. Crompton,et al.  Attitude determinants in tourism destination choice , 1990 .

[31]  Kim Hong-bumm.  Perceived attractiveness of Korean destinations. , 1998 .

[32]  T. Saaty.  An exposition of the AHP in reply to the paper “remarks on the analytic hierarchy process” , 1990 .

[33]  Cathy H. C. Hsu,et al.  Predicting behavioral intention of choosing a travel destination , 2006 .

[34]  A. Woodside,et al.  Building and testing theories of decision making by travellers , 2005 .

[35]  J. Ritchie,et al.  Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies , 1990 .

[36]  D. Ettema,et al.  Multi-faceted tourist travel decisions: A constraint-based conceptual framework to describe tourists' sequential choices of travel components , 1998 .

[37]  Bruce Prideaux,et al.  Marketing implications arising from a comparative study of international pleasure tourist motivations and other travel-related characteristics of visitors to Korea , 2004 .

[38]  Luiz Moutinho,et al.  Modelling Site Location Decisions in Tourism , 1994 .

[39]  Hailin Qu,et al.  The relationship between vacation factors and socio-demographic and travelling characteristics: the case of Japanese leisure travellers. , 2001 .

[40]  Joffre Swait,et al.  Choice set generation within the generalized extreme value family of discrete choice models , 2001 .

[41]  Thomas L. Saaty,et al.  Multicriteria Decision Making: The Analytic Hierarchy Process: Planning, Priority Setting, Resource Allocation , 1990 .

[42]  J. Crompton.  Motivations for pleasure vacation , 1979 .

[43]  R. Sheldon,et al.  STATED PREFERENCE METHODS. AN INTRODUCTION , 1988 .

[44]  T. Saaty.  Axiomatic foundation of the analytic hierarchy process , 1986 .

[45]  A. Decrop.  Tourists' Decision-Making and behavior processes , 2000 .

[46]  J. Nicolau,et al.  The influence of distance and prices on the choice of tourist destinations: the moderating role of motivations. , 2006 .

[47]  Metin Kozak,et al.  Comparative analysis of tourist motivations by nationality and destinations , 2002 .