Is Travel and Tourism a Priority for You? A Comparative Study of American and Taiwanese Residents

This research identified factors influencing people’s willingness to travel by proposing and testing a model of travel importance in a cross-cultural context. Derived from a sample of 500 Taiwanese and 559 American residents, results showed that people would travel more frequently if they perceived travel and tourism as more important personally. This perception was formed based on perceived travel benefits, value relevance, and social influence. It was also found that travel importance can be better predicted by travel benefits for Taiwanese residents whereas value relevance is a better predictor of travel importance for American residents. The paper concludes with strategies to reduce the travel-participation gap that could increase the demand for tourism products and services.