2011 Survey of Travel by R.O.C Citizens
Executive Summary
The objectives of this study are to understand, in 2011, citizens’ traveling activities, degrees of satisfaction and amounts spent on different types of vacation expenses on each trip; and to learn the mutual effects of domestic tourism and outbound travels. It also provides estimates on domestic tourism expenditures and foreign exchange spent on oversea travels. The results of this study provide policy makers needed information on developing new tourist facilities, improving traveling environments, upgrading the quality of tourism and initiating new tourism policies. The population of this survey includes all R.O.C. citizens who were 12 years or older in 2011. The survey period covered from January1, 2011 through December 31, 2011.
This survey was designed primarily to collect domestic tourism data. However, outbound traveling data was also collected as a secondary objective. The survey interviews were conducted by telephone, using a computer-assisted telephone interviewing system (CATI). A stratified random sampling was used to select the sample. The total initial sample was divided into four panels; and a rotation scheme was instituted so that each sample person was interviewed once every quarter for four consecutive quarters. However, sample of each quarter composed of four panels that first panel was interviewed the first time; second panel was interviewed the second time; third panel was interviewed the third time; and the fourth panel was interviewed the fourth time. The numbers of completed domestic tourism interviews were as follows: first quarter 5,559 persons, second quarter 5,560 persons, third quarter 5,563 persons and fourth quarter 5,587 persons. The completed outbound interviews were fewer: first quarter 330 persons, second quarter 432 persons, third quarter 531 persons and fourth quarter 373 persons.
The survey results are summarized in the following in two parts: important indexes of domestic and outbound travels and statistical analysis.
I、Important Indexes of Domestic and Outbound Travels
A. R.O.C. Citizens’ Domestic Tourist Travel Index
Table 1 R.O.C. Citizens’ Domestic Tourist Travel Index
Item / 2011 / 2010 / ChangeProportion of people taking domestic tourist travel / 95.4% / 93.9% / An increase of 1.5%
Average number of trips per person / 7.42trips / 6.08trips / An increase of 1.34 trips
Total number of trips / 152,268,000 trips / 123,937,000 trips / An increase of 22.9%
Average number of days per trip / 1.50 days / 1.49 days / An increase of 0.01 day
Percentages of trips taken during holidays and weekends / 69.7% / 71.9% / A decrease of 2.2%
Over all degree of satisfaction / 98.1% / 98.0% / No significant change
Average expenses
per person day on trip / NT$1,359
(US$46.10) / NT$1,289
(US$40.80) / NT：An increase of 5.4%
(US：An increase of 13.0%)
Average expenses
per person trip / NT$2,038
(US$69.14) / NT$1,921
(US$60.81) / NT：An increase of 6.1%
(US：An increase of 13.7%)
Total expenditure of domestic travels / NT$310.3 billions
(US$10.527 billions) / NT$238.1 billions
(US$7.537 billions) / NT：An increase of 30.3%
(US：An increase of 39.7%)
Note：1.The population of this survey includes all R.O.C. citizens who were 12 years or older.
2. “No significant change” means there is no significant difference under significance level
3. Proportion of people taking domestic tourist travel means the proportion of people who at least took one time
domestic travel during this year.
4. Average expenses per person day on trip= Average expenses per person trip/ Average number of days per trip.
5. Exchange rate was 31.592 for 2010 while exchange rate for 2011 was 29.477, hence the exchange rate increased
from 2010 。
6. 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition ended on April 25 2011, during the exhibition attracted over eight million
visitors
B. R.O.C. Citizens’ Outbound Travel Index
Table 2 R.O.C. Citizens’ Outbound Travel Index
Item / 2011 / 2010 / ChangeProportion of people taking outbound travels / 19.1% / 20.1% / No significant change
Total number of trips / 9,583,873 trips / 9,415,074 trips / An increase of 1.8%
Average number of outbound trips per person / 0.41 trip / 0.41 trip / No significant change
Average number of nights per trip / 9.33 nights / 9.29 nights / An increase of 0.04 nights
Average expenditure per person trip / NT$48,436
(US$1,643) / NT$46,434
(US$1,470) / NT$: An increase of 4.3%
(US$: An increase of 11.8%)
Total expenditure on outbound travels / NT$464.2 billions
(US$15.748 billions) / NT$437.1 billions
(US$13.836 billions) / NT$: An increase of 6.2%
(US$: An increase of 13.8%)
Note:：1.The data source of total number of trips and the average number of nights per trip: Monthly Statistics on Tourism.
2. “No significant change” means there is no significant difference under significance level.
3. Proportion of people taking outbound travels means the proportion of people who at least took one time outbound
travel during this year.
4. Average number of outbound trips per person = total number of outbound trips (the year 2011 was 9,583,873)
/the average of 12 months total population in Taiwan (the year 2011 was 23,187,091).
5. Average expenditure per person trip is estimated based only on trips with 60 nights or fewer.
6. Exchange rate is the average of 12 months spot exchange rate N.T/$ of that year.
7. Exchange rate was 31.592 for 2010 while exchange rate for 2011 was 29.477, hence the exchange rate increased
from 2010 。
II、Statistical Analysis
A. Domestic Travels
1. In 2011, 95.4% of citizens had domestic travels, higher than 93.9% of 2010 : According to the survey, in 2011, 95.4% of the citizens had at least one domestic travel. Compared with 2010, an increase of 1.5% from 2010.
Table 3 Proportions of People taking Domestic Tourist Travel
Unit: %
Year / 1st Quarter / 2nd Quarter / 3rd Quarter / 4th Quarter / Whole Year(1st Quarter~4th Quarter)
2011 / 74.9 / 68.1 / 69.2 / 68.8 / 95.4
2010 / 72.9 / 66.8 / 65.2 / 67.3 / 93.9
.
2. The estimated total number of domestic tourist trips reached 152.27 millions, an increase of 22.9% from the previous year: According to the survey, the average number of trips per person during the year 2011 was 7.42( an increase of 1.34 trips from 6.08 in 2010). The estimated total number of domestic tourist trips taken by citizens of 12 years or older was 152,268,000 trips. And the total number of trips traveled by all citizens was estimated at 177,283,000 trips.
Table 4 Average number of domestic trips per person
Unit: trip
Year / 1st Quarter / 2nd Quarter / 3rd Quarter / 4th Quarter / Whole Year2011 / 2.07 / 1.87 / 1.73 / 1.75 / 7.42
2010 / 1.62 / 1.51 / 1.50 / 1.45 / 6.08
3. “Wished to travel but did not have time” was the main reason for people not having domestic travel: In 2011, 5% of people did not take any domestic tourist travel. And the leading reason for not taking domestic travel was “Wished to travel but did not have time” (40%); the second major reasons were “Wished to travel but could not afford” (21%)、“Wished to travel but had poor health” (19%); the third major reason was “Not interested” (14%).. Compared with 2010, “Wished to travel but had poor health” had an increase of 3%, “Not interested” had a decrease of 4%, and other reasons were no significantly different from 2010.
Table 5 Reasons for not traveling
Unit: %
Item / 2011 / 2010Total / 100.0 / 100.0
Wished to travel but did not have time / 40.3 / 41.6
Wished to travel but could not afford / 20.6 / 20.4
Wished to travel but had poor health / 18.5 / 15.7
Not interested / 14.4 / 17.9
Wished to travel but could not find companions / 2.1 / 1.9
Wished to travel but did not know good tourist places / 1.6 / 1.2
Wished to travel but had transportation problem / 1.0 / —
Wished to travel but tourist places were too crowded / 0.8 / —
Wished to travel but weather were poor / 0.6 / 1.1
Outbound travel / — / —
Wished to travel but had accommodation problem / — / —
Other reasons / — / 0.2
Note: “—” means no sample in the cell.
4. Most of the domestic tourist trips were taken on weekends: In 2011, 60% of the domestic tourist trips were taken on weekends, no significant difference from 2010；30% of domestic trips were taken on weekdays, an increase of 2% from that of 2010；10% of domestic trips were taken on national holidays, a decrease of 2% from that of 2010. As for the purposes of the domestic travels, 83% were for “sightseeing, recreation, vacation”, followed by “visiting friends and relatives” (16%). Compared with 2010, “Pure Sightseeing, Recreation, Vacation” had an increase of 2% from 2010; “visiting friends and relatives” had a decrease of 3% from 2010.
Table 6 Days Used For Domestic Tourist Travel
Unit: %
Days of Travel / 2011 / 2010Total / 100.0 / 100.0
National Holidays / Sub Total / 10.2 / 11.8
New year holiday / － / 0.8
Lunar New Year holidays / 6.1 / 8.4
February 28 Memorial Festival / 0.5 / －
Tomb sweeping Festival / 1.7 / 2.0
Dragon boat Festival / 0.4 / －
Moon Festival / 0.8 / －
Double Tenth Day / 0.5 / －
Other national holidays / 0.2 / 0.6
Weekends / 59.5 / 60.1
Weekdays / Sub Total / 30.3 / 28.1
Annual leaves / 10.2 / 9.1
Summer or winter breaks / 1.8 / 1.4
Other weekdays / 18.3 / 17.6
Note: “—” means did not include long weekend holidays in this year.
Table 7 Purposes of Domestic Tourist Travels
Unit: %
Purpose of the Trip / 2011 / 2010Total / 100.0 / 100.0
Sightseeing, Recreation, Vacation / Sub Total / 82.5 / 79.4
Pure Sightseeing, Recreation, Vacation / 66.3 / 64.5
Physical exercising vacations / 5.4 / 4.7
Ecological tours / 4.3 / 4.3
Conference or Studying Tour / 1.8 / 1.4
Religious travels / 4.7 / 4.5
Business and tourist travel / 1.0 / 0.9
Visiting friends and relatives / 16.4 / 19.6
Others / 0.1 / 0.1
5. 70% of the domestic tourist trips were one-day trips: For the year 2011, about 64% of the trips were taken within the living region of the travelers (not significantly different from that of 2010); observing based on traveler’s residence region, we found that in all regions, most of the trips were traveled within the same region that they live in. As for duration of the trips, most of them (70%) were one-day trips, followed by 19% of two-day trips, 8% of three-day trips, and 3% of four-day or more trips. Average duration of a trip was 1.50 days, not significantly different from 1.49 days of 2010.
Table 8 2011 Proportion of Tourists Visited Each Region
by Region of Residence
Unit: Row %
Region VisitedResidence / North
Region / Central
Region / South
Region / East
Region / Kin-Mar
Region
North Region / 67.3 / 20.2 / 11.7 / 4.1 / 0.4
Central Region / 22.4 / 58.7 / 19.0 / 2.6 / 0.1
South Region / 14.1 / 22.7 / 62.2 / 4.8 / 0.2
East Region / 27.7 / 14.9 / 20.2 / 45.3 / 0.5
Kim-Mar Region / 31.1 / 17.6 / 12.1 / 2.9 / 47.4
Over All / 43.2 / 29.6 / 25.8 / 4.7 / 0.5
Note: 1.This item was multi-choice
2. The percentage of the trips taken within the living region of the travelers (64%) = the total number of the trips traveled within the same region that they live in /total person-trips in 2011.
Table 9 Distribution on Duration of Tourist Trips
Unit: %
Number of Days Traveled / 2011 / 2010Total / 100.0 / 100.0
1 Day / 69.7 / 70.0
2 Days / 18.9 / 19.4
3 Days / 8.2 / 7.6
4 days or more / 3.2 / 3.0
Average duration of each trip / 1.50days / 1.49days
6. Most of over-night tourists stayed in hotels: According to the survey, in domestic trips, 70% of them were same-day returns. 13% stayed in hotels, 9% in friend’s or relative’s places, and 6% in home stays. The percentages of other types of accommodation were very low. Compared with 2010, there was no significantly different from that of 2010.
Table 10 Distribution of Accommodation Choices
Unit: %
Accommodation Choice / 2011 / 2010Total / 100.0 / 100.0
Same-day return / 69.7 / 70.0
Hotel / 13.2 / 12.6
Friend’s or relative’s places / 9.4 / 10.3
Home stays / 6.0 / 5.7
Reception house or activity center / 1.0 / 0.9
Camping / 0.6 / 0.5
Others / 0.1 / 0.1
7. 88% of the tourist trips were completely planned by tourists’ themselves, only 4% of the domestic tourist trips planned by travel agencies: Majority of the tourists planned their trips completely by themselves (88%), while other types of planning were each used by less than 3% of the tourists. Only 4% of the domestic tourist trips were planned by travel agencies. The major reasons for joining the package tours planned by travel agencies were “save planning time” (59%), “Attractiveness of the package tour’s content” (56%) and “Do not have to drive”(44%).
Table 11 Types of Travels
Unit: %
Types of Travels / 2011 / 2010Total / 100.0 / 100.0
Tours planned by tourists’ themselves / 88.3 / 88.4
Tours planned by employers / 2.7 / 2.6
Tours planned by schools or classes / 1.5 / 1.6
Tours planned by religion groups / 1.6 / 1.5
Package tours by travel agencies / 0.7 / 0.5
Tours planned by village community or senior citizen groups / 2.1 / 2.5
Tours planned by civic associations / 2.1 / 2.2
Tours planned by other groups / 0.9 / 0.7
Others / 0.1 / 0.0
Note: “0.0”means the percentage was under 0.05.