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Purpose This study aims to address research gaps by constructing critical success factors (CSFs) in the context of green hotel investment in Taiwan. It contributes to the domain knowledge to cultivate Taiwan’s green hotel development in the future. Design/methodology/approach The authors secured 20 prominent green hotel management/owners/architects as crucial informants. The first stage used the Delphi method to collect expert opinions (i.e. CSFs) and the second stage applied the analytic hierarchy process to analyze the importance of CSFs. Findings The results show that the “financial investment benefits” is considered the most crucial success factor for the green hotel investment. However, to balance long-term economic development with environmental impact, green hotel investors should consider other aspects of the research to sustain future financial performance returns. Research limitations/implications Further studies should consider regional characteristics to accommodate geographic/social differences and hotel types to explore possible CSFs for the green hotel investment. The authors suggest including panel experts from government officials and prominent scholars to represent a broader but different view on subject matters. They also offer implications for investors’ governmental policies, hotelier cognition and customer-related aspects in green hotel investment. Originality/value This study built a hierarchical framework based on the CSF concept by evaluating priority differences between hotel management and hotel owners/architects. Such findings help investors’ effective decision-making through considering factors’ relative importance for green hotel investments.

PurposeThe purpose is to understand the importance of brand experience in the Taiwan hotel branding process; also, this study is to investigate the moderating effect of brand experience on the relationship between brand positioning and non-financial brand performance in Taiwan upscale hotels, focusing on mainland Chinese tourists.Design/methodology/approachThe structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was used to conduct questionnaire analysis. This study examined data collected from Chinese tourists who stayed at Taiwan upscale hotels.FindingsThe brand experience of an upscale hotel brand can affect its brand image, product attributes, brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. By investigating the moderating effect of brand experience, the study revealed the brand image perceptions of hotel guests with a positive brand experience to significantly influence non-financial brand performance. The product attribute perceptions of hotel guests with a more positive brand experience were also found to have a more significant effect on nonfinancial brand performance.Originality/valueIn the highly competitive hotel industry, the application of brand experience to marketing practice has drawn much industry attention. There is a strong possibility that upscale hotel companies will eventually find value in adopting the measurement instruments and suggestions presented here to assess and guide their marketing practices.

China has been by far the fastest growing source market in recent years, and now is the biggest tourism source market in the world. Mainland Chinese travellers were permitted to directly visit Taiwan in 2008. Within a short period of time, the Mainland Chinese travel market has become the top source market for Taiwan's tourism industry. However, limited attention has been paid to the travel behaviour of this significant market, such as why and why not Mainland Chinese travellers visit Taiwan. Using interviews, this study identified a list of motivation factors and travel constraint factors. Three themes, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual factors, influenced Mainland Chinese tourists' intention to visit Taiwan. Particularly, contextual factors, such as 'the cross-strait relations' between Mainland China and Taiwan, play a key role in influencing tourists' visit intention. Like two sides of the same coin, 'the cross-strait relations' could be the facilitator to attract Mainland Chinese tourists or the inhibitor to stop Mainland Chinese visiting Taiwan.