Gary Love Share (Gary 愛分享)

A couple of months ago, a tour bus filled with Chinese tourists crashed in Nantou County, leaving some tourists dead and seriously wounded. The news shocked a lot of people in Taiwan and that's also when I started to realize how bad the travel quality was back then for Chinese tourists in Taiwan. As the news cited the Chinese tourists as saying, "起得比雞早、吃得比豬爛、跑得比馬快" (get up earlier than a rooster, eat much worse food than a pig, run faster than a horse- a metaphor referring to the time duration staying at one tourist attraction) is the depiction of the travel qualtiy. What impressed me the most is that some tea sellers tried to rip off those tourists by pricing the tea worth of 200 NTD at around 2000 NTD. I bet every Taiwanese must feel ashamed or uncomfortable hearing the report.

However, sometimes people learn a lesson from histry and a problem can mean a turning point to a successful reform. I don't know if the reform is underway or if it hasn't started yet. However, a survey released today shows that 96 percent of the Chinese tourists who visited Taiwan between this January and September would like to visit Taiwan again. Of 444 tourists who filled out the questionnaire at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Kaohsiung International Airport, 270 valid respondants said they were satisfied with the overall service provided by Taiwanese travel agencies. The service provided by tour guides topped the service chart. Even the least satisfied service (dining arrangements) was rated 84.4 percent. When it comes to shopping, 40.4 percent said the prices of goods were fair; 40.7 percent said they were expensive or very expensive; only 4.1 percent said prices were inexpensive.

Based on the results, can we conclude that the service quality has been improved? Maybe or maybe not. After all, during the bus accident, some people lost their lives. This just happened a few months ago. There must be loads of problems that need to be dug out, investigated and solved. Otherwise, history will repeat itself. I still have confidence in Taiwanese people's moral standards and consciousness. Most people are decent when they do business. Although the survey indicates that Chinese tourists are satisfied with the overall travel quality, we still shouldn't slack off or turn a deaf ear to what has happened in the past. Only by doing so, the travel industry can be sustainable and more tourists will come in.

What do you think?

Reference: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2006/12/31/2003342779