Developing a sustainability strategy for Taiwan’s tourism industry after the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 around the world has caused great damage to the global economy. The tourism industry is among the worst-hit industries. How to focus on visitors who are most helpful to the tourism industry and develop sustainable strategy of operation is a very important question for after the epidemic is over. This study applied two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) and principal component analysis (PCA) to investigate past statistics from the Tourism Bureau and explore the shopping patterns of tourists who travel to Taiwan. The focus will be on tourists from major countries such as China, Japan, and Southeast Asian countries. According to the analysis of tourists from different countries, the money spent by tourists from different countries is concentrated on different items, and there are subitems that they particularly like to purchase. For the analysis of the purpose of coming to Taiwan, some tourism areas worth developing (such as medical treatment and leisure) are also presented in the research results. Based on these results, and according to the sustainable development goals, specific recommendations for the sustainability strategy of operation are made as a reference for the government and relevant industries. This research also broadens the scope of application of DEA and points out a different direction for future research.

Present and prospective research themes for tourism and hospitality education post-COVID19: A bibliometric analysis

“…Studies under this theme suggest a faster recovery of the hospitality and tourism sector, also suggesting ways to reduce the severity of any future COVID like pandemics in this sector. Tsai (2021) predicts medical tourism and leisure to be the areas of importance post-COVID-19, indicating that future researchers must focus on these areas of tourism.…”

“…Future research in tourism, hospitality and leisure should suggest innovative business models that are more resilient and sustainable so that the sector is equipped to face challenges raised by any crisis. Medical tourism and leisure are expected to be the focus of tourism industry in future ( Tsai, 2021 ).…”

“… Bausch et al, 2021 Demirović Bajrami et al, 2021 E and Waltman, 2020 H, 2020 H, 2021 Higgins-Desbiolles, 2020b K.M, 2020 Lapointe, 2020 Liu et al, M.-C, 2021 N, 2021 R.A, 2021 Stephen and Catherine, 2001 W.C, 2021 Wilkins et al, 2021 Yang et al, 2017 Zenker et al, 2021 …”

Island Tourism-Based Sustainable Development at a Crossroads: Facing the Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, more research on the health, socioeconomic, and cultural impacts of the pandemic on island tourism, as well as on possible future scenarios, has become available [41,45,46]. There is growing evidence of the tourism paradigm shift on development worldwide.…”

“…Current analyses and discussions on what the future holds for island tourism development and possible tourism paradigm shifts are obviously mostly tentative and speculative. The conclusion of most such research is that, taking into account the effects of the pandemic, climate change, the negative impacts of unsustainable island tourism development, and the need to improve islands' resilience in the face of crises, islands need to focus on developing a greener and more sustainable island tourism [45,49], on domestic tourism [50,51], on developing alternative, nature-based types of tourism experiences [51,52], and on economic diversification [52,53].…”