Impact of Taiwan open policy on Chinese tourist satisfaction

The Taiwan government has imposed a daily visitation quota with strict regulations on Chinese visitor travel modes, length of stay, and visa authorizations since July 2008. This highly controlled scheme was an attempt to maintain service quality on top of security and political considerations. The purpose of this study is to provide in-depth analysis regarding the Chinese tourist satisfaction over time under different travel modes. The results indicated that package tour (PT) visitors generally gave higher satisfaction scores than free and independent travel (FIT) visitors. However, PT visitors demonstrated a decreased level of satisfaction on their tour arrangements of hotels, meals, itineraries. Addressing safety and environmental issues is the priority task in order to provide quality travel services

Developing Student Engagement in China Through Collaborative Action Research

As its market and society open up, China has transformed itself from a closed agrarian socialist economy to an urban state and an economic force. This has released accumulated tourism demand, led to the development of a diversified industry, and the spread of university and vocational courses in this field. However, the industry faces challenges to recruit and retain staff, with tourism education in higher education blamed for the shortfall in numbers and quality of candidates with suitable purpose, knowledge, and passion to serve. This chapter provides a background to the development of and problems facing tourism education in China, and suggests how to support student engagement and hence the future workforce

Applying the 3M Model of personality and motivation to adventure travelers

More than a decade has passed since the Travel Industry Association investigated adventure travel as a promising market. Despite growth in the adventure industry, studies of adventure travelers remain scarce, particularly in the identification of the psychological underpinnings of consumer adventurers. Mowen’s (2000) 3M Model of Motivation and Personality provided an organizing framework to explain the psychological roots of adventure tourism behavior. Self-administered questionnaires were mailed to a random sample (N=1000) of National Geographic Adventure magazine subscribers with a response rate (n=339) of 34%. Guttman Scaling Procedure was employed to categorize respondents in hard and soft adventure traveler categories as a context for understanding the demographic and travel behavior characteristics. The personality trait interest in cultural experiences was a consistent predictor of adventure travel propensity for hard and soft adventure traveler groups. The traits need for arousal and need for material resources were significant predictors for the hard adventure traveler group, while competitiveness was the other trait found to be a significant predictor for the soft adventure traveler group. Findings of this study enhance knowledge and understanding of the relationship between personality and tourism behavior

Tourism resilience in the context of integrated destination and disaster management (DM2)

The disaster management principles should be integrated into the destination management plans to enhance resilience of tourist destinations to natural disasters. The success of such integration depends on the extent of tourism stakeholder collaboration, but this topic remains understudied, especially in the Caribbean. This paper evaluates tourism resilience in Grenada. It finds that local tourism stakeholders are well aware of the potential damage natural disasters can inflict on the destination but fail to develop effective measures to build destination-wide and organizational resilience. The paper proposes an action framework to aid tourism stakeholders in Grenada to more effectively plan for disasters

Demanding business travel:the evolution of the timespaces of business practice

To date, virtual ways of working have yet to substantially reduce demand for business travel. Emerging research claims that virtual and physical work compliment rather than substitute for one another. This suggests travel demand stems from business strategies and achieving business outcomes. In building on these ideas, this chapter draws upon Schatzki’s conception of timespace to capture changes in how two UK-based global construction and engineering consulting firms organise work and the implications in terms of demand for business travel. Overtime, particular forms of spatially stretched organisation which have developed are found to require the interweaving of timespaces through travel. As such, how each firm has evolved has in turn created the contemporary situation of significant and hard to reduce demand for travel

Impact of dietary energy content and feed level on the digestive efficiency in growing rabbit

Restricted feeding is commonly used in rabbit breeding to reduce mortality and morbidity but results in decreased growth and lower slaughter yield. A high energy diet offered at 75% of the ad libitum (AL) intake could prevent these detrimental effects. The aim of this work was to study the consequences of such a feeding strategy on the digestive efficiency of growing rabbits. 48 animals were divided into four groups differing in dietary energy content (2417 (HE) vs 2168 kcal DE/kg GM) and feeding level (AL or restricted at 75% (R)) according to a 2x2 experimental design. Animals were fed the experimental diets from weaning (35 d of age) to 74 d of age, and feed restriction was applied from 35 to 63 d. Digestive efficiency was assessed during feed restriction (42 to 46 d) and after one week of AL feeding (70 to 74 d). Feed restriction improved fecal digestibility of organic matter (OM, +3.8pts), protein (+5.4pts) and fiber (NDF +5.5pts, ADF +5.9pts; p<0.001). The digestibility of OM (+6.1pts), protein (+4.7pts) and fiber (NDF +7.2pts, ADF +6.2pts; p<0.001) was higher in HE animals. Interaction between DE content and feeding level was significant for OM and ADF digestibility: R animals fed the HE diet had better digestibility (+5.4pts and +8.9pts) compared to the HE AL fed animals. When returning to an AL feeding, no effect of the previous feeding level was observed while the effects of DE content on the digestibility of protein (+2.9pts), OM (+4.3pts, p<0.001) and NDF (+4.3pts, p<0.01) were maintained. In conclusion restricted feeding of a high energy diet would be favorable to the digestive efficiency, thus growth and slaughter yield

Feed restriction reduces IgA levels and modifies the ileal cytokine expressions in growing rabbits

Postweaning short-term restriction strategies are commonly used in rabbit breeding to reduce mortality and morbidity. However, little is known about the implications of the immune system in that reduction. This work studied the consequences of feed restriction and dietary digestible energy (DE) concentration on the local immune response, according to a 2x2 factorial design: 320 animals were alloted at weaning (35 days of age) in four groups, with two diets differing in DE (10.13 vs 9.08 MJ DE/kg) and two intake level (ad libitum "AL" or restricted at 75% of AL). Ten animals per group and per age were sacrificed at 50 and 63 days of age. Feces, blood and ileum were collected. Fecal and plasmatic IgA levels were determined by ELISA and ileal cytokine expressions were measured by RT-qPCR. Fecal IgA levels were reduced by 58% with feed restriction (P<0.001) and increased by 47% with a high energy diet (P<0.01), regardless of the age. Plasmatic IgA levels were only affected by feed restriction at 63 days of age (-48%, P<0.01). Cytokine expressions were similar for both ages and diets, but were affected by feed restriction with a higher expression of IL-1β and IL-2 (respectively +30%, P<0.05 and +77%, P=0.07) and a 15% lower expression of TNF-α (P=0.08) compared to AL animals. Thus, feed restriction and, to a lesser extent, the dietary energy level modulate gut immunity