Asia paci�c journal of tourism research, vol. 15, no. 3, september 2010

Asia Paciï¬�c Journal of Tourism Research, Vol. 15, No. 3, September 2010 Motivations and Marketing Drivers of Taiwanese Island Tourists: Comparing Across Penghu, Taiwan and Phuket, Thailand Sung Hee Park1∗ , Chi-Ming Hsieh1 and Regina McNally2 Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation & Resource Studies, Michigan State University, 131 Natural Resources Building, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA 2 Department of Management and Marketing, Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland 1 The island tourism market is a major growth segment, worldwide, for international tourism. Penghu, Taiwan, and Phuket, Thailand, have become major destinations for foreign and domestic island tourism for Taiwanese tourists. Island tourists might have different reasons for choosing domestic versus international destinations. The objectives of this study are: (1) to identify motivational factors and marketing drivers across the two islands; (2) to investigate measurement invariance across samples; and (3) to examine the moderation effect of marketing drivers on the relationship between island tourists’ motivations and their travel behavior, across samples. The measures were validated via conï¬�rmatory factor analysis, using EQS, and identiï¬�ed four motivational factors: experience, facilities and services, natural resources, and special events. Moderated regression was carried out to examine whether marketing drivers have a moderating effect on the relationship between motivation, and trip duration and group size. As there is measurement invariance exhibited throughout the samples of both Penghu and Phuket tourists, managers and academics alike can be conï¬�dent that the scales capture the motivations and marketing drivers effectively across different contexts. In addition, marketing drivers moderate the effect of motivation on trip duration and group size in Phuket, and on group size in Penghu. Both islands need to emphasize that tourist motivations for experiencing island travel can bring a longer stay through pricing and promotional tour package programming. Key words: island tourism, push and pull motivations, marketing drivers ∗ Email: parksu26@msu. edu ISSN 1094-1665 print/ISSN 1741-6507 online/10/030305— 13 # 2010 Asia Paciï¬�c Tourism Association DOI: 10. 1080/10941665. 2010. 503622 306 Sung Hee Park et al Government (2009), the population of Penghu is 91, 785. The islands cover a land area of 141 km2 and are comprised of six administrative districts: one city (Magung) and ï¬�ve townships (Huxi, Baisha, Shiyeu, Wangan and Cimei). Penghu Island is famous for its abundant natural resources, as well as for its cultural and historic heritage. In particular, tourists come for its marine resources. Popular activities include sea ï¬�shing, scuba diving, glass-bottom boat trips and dolphin watching. It has long been a favorite island destination among the Taiwanese and brings in approximately 504, 000 tourists annually, with domestic tourists accounting for 98% of its visitors in 2008 (Penghu National Scenic Area Administration, 2009). Phuket is Thailand’s largest island. Phuket is made up of one large island and 39 small islands, which are situated off the west coast of Thailand. According to NileGuide (2009), the islands cover a land area of 570 km2 and are divided into three administrative districts in which approximately 314, 000 people reside. Phuket Island is famous for its abundant natural resources, such as its wide and long beaches, and is well known for its international festivals and events, such as the Phuket Gay Festival, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, and Loi Krathong. Most tourists come for its marine and natural resources. Popular activities include snorkeling and scuba diving, and short boat trips. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (2007) reported that 3. 3 million international tourists traveled to Phuket in 2007. Tourism income in Phuket accounts for 33% of Thailand’s total tourism revenue; approximately 3 million international tourists visited Phuket in 2006. An estimated 379, 000 Taiwanese tourists visited Thailand in 2006, making Phuket one of the most popular foreign island destinations among Taiwanese (Taiwan Tourism Bureau, Introduction Researchers have noted that multiple motivations drive tourists’ travel decisions (Crompton, 1979; Kozak, 2002). In particular, island tourists may have different reasons for choosing domestic versus international islands. For example, domestic tourists may prefer shorter distances and less expensive trips, whereas international tourists may be more interested in exotic environments and food. Taiwanese tourists interested in visiting both domestic (e. g. Penghu, Green, Lanyu) and foreign island destinations (e. g. Guam, Hawaii, Ryukyu, Bali, Phuket) comprise a signiï¬�cant segment, given that they are a substantial percentage of the Taiwanese tourist market (Taiwan Tourism Bureau Ministry, 2006). However, travel and tourism researchers have given minimal attention to market share maintenance and growth for this segment. Understanding tourist motivations is one of the key elements of planning for destination marketing (Prideaux & Crosswell, 2006). In international tourism, the island tourism market is a major growth segment worldwide. Tourism on Paciï¬�c islands has played a signiï¬�cant role in the overall economic structure of local communities. In some cases, island tourism accounts for 20— 50% of the gross national product (Hampton & Christensen 2007); international tourism accounts for well over 50% of export earnings (Lockhart, 1997; Shaw & Williams, 1994). For Taiwanese tourists, the domestic island of Penghu and the Thai island of Phuket are two major tourism destinations. Penghu is Taiwan’s largest island, and is one of 23 cities/counties in Taiwan. Penghu is an archipelago (also called the Pescadores) made up of 90 small islands, and is located off the western coast of Taiwan. According to the Penghu County Motivations of Taiwanese Island Tourists 2006). As an international island destination from Taiwan, Phuket can be reached only by air. The purpose of this research is to construct and validate a moderated model of island tourists’ travel behaviors, integrating traveling motivations and marketing drivers. The speciï¬�c objectives are: (1) identify motivational factors and marketing drivers across two island destinations; (2) investigate the measurement invariance across samples; and (3) examine the moderation effect of marketing drivers on the relationship between island tourists’ motivations and their travel behavior across samples. This study contributes to the knowledge of motivations, marketing drivers and travel behaviors in the context of island tourism. 307 Literature Review Push and Pull Motivations Stakeholders want to know why people travel. Thus, the starting point of much of the tourism research is tourist motivation, as it drives tourist behavior (Alghamdi, 2007; Crompton, 1979; Kim & Lee, 2002; Mannell & IsoAhola, 1987; Mansfeld, 1992). Tourist motivations differ from one person to another because of the diverse needs and desires associated with various tourism products and services. Those key factors that encourage tourists to travel or to participate in a tourist activity can be regarded as the push and pull motivations (Andreu, Kozak, Avci, & Cifter, 2005). Dann (1977) ï¬�rst proposed the push and pull theory in tourism. He demonstrated that tourists travel because they are pushed into making travel decisions by internal, psychological forces, and are pulled by the external forces of the destination attributes. Klenosky (2002) suggested that push and pull factors should not be viewed as independent factors but as being related to each other. Combinations of different push and pull motivations create perceptions of different tourism destinations (Correia & do Valle, 2007). Crompton (1979) pointed to the association between push and pull factors, involving the attractions and amenities of a particular destination, as infl uencing a tourist’s destination choice. Lee, O’Leary, Lee, and Morrison (2002) compared push motives with pull motives, in terms of their infl uences on destination choice and vacation activity participation. Gartner (1996) proposed a spatial model of travel, which included ï¬�ve stages (anticipation, travel to, on site, travel from and recollection). He emphasized that the push and pull factors are important determinants in choosing tourists’ destinations during the anticipation phase. Examining the push and pull factors of tourists should be beneï¬�cial to destination marketers and researchers (Jang & Cai, 2002) because individuals’ various needs, lifestyles and perceptions can be identiï¬�ed and incorporated into travel programming and marketing activities. The push and pull motivations of travel decisionmaking provide an effective mechanism for explaining and predicting tourists’ travel decisions (N. Kim & Chalip, 2004; S. Kim, Lee, & Klenosky, 2003). Trip Duration and Group Size Tourist motivations, regarding where to go, how to get there and what to do, are strongly involved in their destination choices and behaviors. Previous studies identiï¬�ed that motivations infl uence travel behavior or predict future behavior (Mansfeld, 1992; Pearce, 1982). Travel behaviors/characteristics 308 Sung Hee Park et al tourists, the bigger the expenditures at wineries. They also indicated that larger groups were typically groups of people who knew each other (e. g. relatives, friends). Kim (2007) indicated that the number of group members could have an effect on the relationships between social identity and the desire to travel, and between social identity and a group’s intention to travel. (price, trip duration, group size and client-toguide ratio) are considerations that affect travel decision-making for group travel, such as adventure activities (Buckley, 2007). Trip duration is one of the major research subjects related to tourist motivation, activities or spending on a trip (Alegre & Pou, 2006; Decrop & Snelders, 2004; Gokovali, Bahar, & Kozak, 2007; Gunn, 1988; Haeseler & Virginai, 1989; Martinez-Garcia & Raya, 2008; Mok & Iverson, 2000; Serrell & Becker, 1990; Spotts & Mahoney, 1991). Island destinations offer particular geographic characteristics and natural resources; thus, accessibility and distance to a destination play an important role and affect tourist decisions (Hall & Muller, 2004; Hall & Page, 2006). ¨ According to Alegre and Pou (2006), vacation destination and duration decisions are related to socio-economic characteristics and psychographic attributes such as age, income, motivations and preferences. Trip duration is also strongly infl uenced by time, cost and travel distance (Page, Bentley, Meyer, & Chalmers, 2001). Time restriction with employment or work, low household income and high travel cost make people stay a shorter time on their trips than they might desire (Alegre & Pou, 2006; Nicolau & Ma 2004). Trip duration ´s, can be increased by promoting infl uential travel factors such as needs, wants, past experiences and the promotion of vacationing (Gokovali et al., 2007). Travel group size is another important determinant for tourist activities and spending (Buckley, 2007; Mok & Iverson, 2000; Wang, Rompf, Severt, & Peerapatdit, 2006). Gundawar, Sinha, and Wable (2008) found that there was an association between travel frequency per year and group size. Kolyesnikova and Dodd (2008) examined the effect of visitor group size on purchasing intention, and found that the smaller the group of wine Marketing Drivers Tourism marketing involves discovering tourists’ motivations, developing suitable tourist services, telling them what is available, and providing instruction on where they can buy those products and services. Thus, tourists receive value and the tourist organization proï¬�ts and attains its goals (Moutinho, 2000). Marketing drivers, such as price and product, are the most important factors in guiding tourists’ travel choices (Assael, 1984; Decrop, 2006). Nicolau and Mas (2005) ´ demonstrated that the effects of destination attributes, such as distance and price, are moderated by tourist motivations at the moment they choose a destination. Cooper and Meiklejohn (2003) argued that cost is a key factor for tourists in their travel behavior. Prices and tourism attractions are equal in being the most important factors triggering Taiwanese tourists’ purchasing intentions (Chang, Wang, Guo, Su, & Yen, 2007). D. Wang (2006) found that consumers with different buying motivations demonstrated signiï¬�cant differences in buying desires when faced with price promotions. Tour operators in the tourism market face intense price competition (K. Wang, Hsieh, & Huan, 2000), but this does not mean that they are offering inferior tourism products and services. Low price is a consequential trend in the travel market; it is Motivations of Taiwanese Island Tourists important to attract tourists by providing innovative, high-quality products at low prices (Chang et al., 2007). This study attempts to explore whether marketing drivers will moderate the effect of push and pull motivations on travel behaviors (trip duration and group size). 309 Methods The study population was tourists, who participated in group package tours to Penghu, Taiwan and Phuket, Thailand, between July and September 2007. The group package tour is the main mode used by Taiwanese tourists (Wang, Hsieh, Chou, & Lin, 2007). For instance, 1. 5 million visitors on group tours traveled to Phuket in 2007 (Tourism Authority of Thailand, 2007). In particular, for sightseeing purposes, almost half of all Taiwanese tourists travel on group package tours (Chang et al., 2007). A survey questionnaire was the instrument used to conduct this study. It was comprised of 27 items on travel motivations, nine items on marketing drivers, seven questions on socio-demographic characteristics, and six questions on travel behaviors. Respondents’ motivations and marketing variables were measured on a ï¬�ve-point Likert scale, ranging from one (strongly disagree) to ï¬�ve (strongly agree). This study adopted convenience sampling, with a self-administered survey, to targeted travel groups organized by travel agents. From July to September 2007, data were collected from Taiwanese travel groups visiting Penghu, Taiwan and Phuket, Thailand, respectively, with the assistance of the tour guides. Of the 700 self-administered questionnaires delivered, a total of 432 responses were The Proposed Hypothetical Model In light of the above literature review, this study proposes the hypothesized model seen in Figure 1, which represents graphically the moderating relationships among the constructs. Eight hypotheses, based on the literature review, have been generated to examine the role of marketing drivers as a moderator of the relationship between push and pull motivations, and trip duration and group size, for the tourists of both Penghu (H1a — H4a) and Phuket (H1b — H4b). H1a and 1b: Marketing drivers moderate the effect of push motivation on trip duration. H2a and 2b: Marketing drivers moderate the effect of push motivation on group size. H3a and 3b: Marketing drivers moderate the effect of pull motivation on trip duration. H4a and 4b: Marketing drivers moderate the effect of pull motivation on group size. Figure 1 Proposed Model. 310 Sung Hee Park et al above four times (37. 2%) and two times (26%); were accompanied by friends and family (60. 7%); traveled with 5— 10 people (38. 6%); stayed for 4— 5 days (87. 9%); and got information via word-of-mouth (22. 4%) and magazines and newspapers (22. 3%). collected on-site, a response rate of 61. 7%. This included 209 out of 350 questionnaires obtained from Penghu, with a response rate of 59. 7%; 223 out of 350 questionnaires were obtained from Phuket, for a response rate of 63. 7%. Conï¬�rmatory factor analyses were conducted to identify the association of motivation and marketing drivers. Moderated multiple regression analyses were carried out to examine whether the marketing drivers infl uence motivations for trip duration and group size. Measurement Model Fit The measures were validated through conï¬�rmatory factor analysis (CFA), using EQS Version 6. 1 for Windows (Bentler & Wu, 1995). The CFA results for the measurement model, including the measurement items, standardized factor loadings and t-values, are presented in Table 1. Construct descriptive statistics, including means, standard deviations, factor reliabilities, average variance extracted and factor correlations, are shown in Table 2. The study estimated the measurement model with items restricted to loading on their respective pre-speciï¬�ed factors, using raw data as input. Items loading less than 0. 5 on their respective constructs were removed in successive CFAs (Anderson, 1987). Construct reliability was evaluated by examining the item loadings and their associated tvalues, as well as the factor reliabilities and the average variance extracted (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). As shown for both samples in Table 1, all loadings in the ï¬�nal CFA are signiï¬�cant, with a standardized loading of at least 0. 50 and tvalues larger than 7. 18— evidence of convergent validity (Bagozzi, Yi, & Phillips, 1991). As shown on the diagonal in Table 2, the lowest factor reliability value was 0. 74, indicating reliable factors. All of the average variance extracted values shown in Table 2 exceeded 50%, indicating that the measurement error variance was less than the variance Results Sample Proï¬�le The primary socio-demographic characteristics showed that Penghu tourists were: divided between females (57. 9%) and males (42. 1%); aged between 20 and 40 years (78. 9 %); had an education level above or equivalent to a college degree (87. 1%); single (58. 9%); and had monthly incomes between US$607 and US$1, 788 (65. 6%). In addition, their travel behavior revealed: many traveled to this destination for the ï¬�rst time (37. 8%) and had been there two times (30. 6%); were accompanied by friends and family (59. 8%); traveled with 5 — 10 people (40. 2%); stayed for 3 — 4 days (90. 9%); and got their information via word-of-mouth (28. 3%) and the Internet (20. 9%). Phuket tourists showed that their characteristics were: divided by females (52%) and males (48%); aged between 20 and 40 years (71. 3 %); had an education level above or equivalent to a college degree (86. 9%); married (52. 5%); and had monthly incomes between US$607 and US$1, 788 (61. 4%). Furthermore, tourist travel behavior showed the following: had traveled to this destination Motivations of Taiwanese Island Tourists Table 1 Conï¬�rmatory Factor Analysis Results for the Measurement Model Penghu Factor Experience Experiencing exotic food Experiencing different cultures Rediscovering myself Facilities and Services Safety and security of facilities Professional medical equipment Nice living environment Good hospitality service quality Food sanitation and safety Natural Resources Clean and clear sea Beautiful scenery and landscapes Spacious beaches Good air quality Good undersea views Special Events Festival events Sporting events Marketing Drivers Pricing of travel package (airfare, food and accommodation) Pricing of local shopping Promotion of travel package programming Phuket 311 l t-Value l t-Value Equivalent Yes/No 0. 76 0. 73 0. 70 0. 78 0. 79 0. 82 0. 79 0. 87 0. 82 0. 80 0. 84 0. 76 0. 69 0. 89 0. 72 0. 77 0. 88 0. 85 11. 25 10. 82 10. 27 13. 14 13. 40 14. 01 13. 36 15. 28 13. 87 13. 32 14. 58 12. 47 10. 81 11. 23 9. 49 12. 68 15. 17 14. 41 0. 74 0. 83 0. 50 0. 81 0. 82 0. 81 0. 76 0. 84 0. 81 0. 80 0. 85 0. 78 0. 73 0. 93 0. 59 0. 60 0. 86 0. 74 10. 78 12. 09 7. 18 14. 24 14. 43 14. 13 12. 97 15. 11 14. 23 13. 91 15. 31 13. 35 12. 30 9. 31 7. 21 9. 05 13. 68 11. 46 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Phuket: x2 ¼ 240. 68, df ¼ 125, p , 0. 001; CFI ¼ 0. 942; SRMR ¼ 0. 06. Penghu: x2 ¼ 283. 82, df ¼ 125, p , 0. 001; CFI ¼ 0. 925; SRMR ¼ 0. 05. captured by the latent variable, and that measurement error was not driving the results. All factors were signiï¬�cantly correlated on both islands. All constructs were veriï¬�ed to be separate factors (i. e., to construct discriminant validity) by testing that the latent variable correlations all differed signiï¬�cantly from unity, following the procedure suggested by Bagozzi et al. (1991). Although the chi-square statistics for both the Phuket and Penghu samples were signiï¬�cant at 240. 68 (df ¼ 125; p , 0. 001) and 283. 82 312 Sung Hee Park et al Table 2 Construct Descriptive Statistics, Reliabilities and Correlations Facilities and Services 0. 30 0. 90 0. 91 0. 68 0. 30 0. 49 4. 00 3. 73 0. 75 0. 73 65. 2% 65. 8% Penghu (N ¼ 209) Phuket (N ¼ 223) Experience Facilities and Services Natural Resources Special Events Marketing Drivers Meanb Standard deviation Average variance extracted a b Experience 0. 74a 0. 77 0. 35 0. 33 0. 37 0. 36 Phuket 4. 06 Penghu 3. 98 Phuket 0. 63 Penghu 0. 64 Phuket 50. 1% Penghu 53. 1% Natural Resources 0. 46 0. 63 0. 90 0. 89 0. 24 0. 38 4. 28 4. 16 0. 59 0. 63 63. 3% 61. 1% Special Events 0. 52 0. 31 0. 26 0. 74 0. 79 0. 45 3. 54 3. 40 0. 80 0. 86 60. 3% 65. 1% Marketing Drivers 0. 43 0. 54 0. 31 0. 40 0. 78 0. 87 3. 52 3. 47 0. 55 0. 71 54. 9% 69. 7% Factor reliabilities are on the diagonal. Scales range from a strongly disagree of 1 to a strongly agree of 5. All are signiï¬�cant at p , 0. 05. (df ¼ 125; p , 0. 001), respectively, other ï¬�t indices indicated that the measurement models ï¬�t the data well: Phuket (CFI (comparative ï¬�t index) ¼ 0. 942 and SRMR (standardized root mean residual) ¼ 0. 06) and Penghu (CFI ¼ 0. 925 and SRMR ¼ 0. 05). The study statistically compared the equivalence of the factor structures across samples by following the guidelines suggested by Joreskog (1971) and elaborated by Byrne, Shavelson, and Muthen (1989). Factor structure ´ equivalence was tested across the two samples by constraining the item loadings, the factor covariances and the factor variances across the groups so as to be equal, and by examining the equal lambdas, covariances and variances. The resulting model ï¬�t is acceptable: CFI ¼ 0. 935; SRMR ¼ 0. 06; x2 ¼ 547. 39, df ¼ 277, p , 0. 001. Table 1 indi- cates that all of the items on each factor exhibit equivalent factor loadings across samples, demonstrating support for measurement invariance. Moderated Multiple Regression Results Moderated multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses whether marketing drivers are associated with four motivations (experience, facilities and services, natural resources, and special events) and with travel behaviors (trip duration and group size). After centering variables–by subtracting the sample mean from each observed value, in order to minimize the multicollinearity and increase the precision and stability of estimates (Kromrey & Foster-Johnson, Table 3 Moderated Regression Analysis Results Trip Duration Penghu Predictor Phuket Penghu Group Size Phuket Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 b b b b b b b b b b b b 20. 065 20. 011 0. 104 20. 075 0. 104 0. 074 0. 033 0. 102 20. 100 20. 149 20. 332 20. 250 20. 258 20. 198 0. 036 0. 166∗ 0. 028 20. 087 20. 359 0. 138 0. 026 20. 091 0. 034 20. 810∗ 20. 085 20. 072 20. 057 0. 086 20. 105 0. 043 20. 450 20. 833 0. 511 0. 191 0. 079 0. 656 1. 545∗ Experience 20. 045 Facilities and 0. 036 Services Natural Resources 0. 096 Special Events 20. 057 Marketing Drivers MarketingDrivers × Experience MarketingDrivers × Facilities and Services MarketingDrivers × Natural Resources MarketingDrivers × Special Events R2 0. 014 F 0. 725 DR2 0. 014 DF 0. 725 ∗ 0. 040 0. 944 0. 038 0. 185∗ 20. 131 20. 020 20. 054 0. 664 2. 370∗ 20. 441 0. 035 0. 445 20. 189∗ 20. 199∗ 20. 013 0. 228 0. 051 20. 012 20. 041 20. 350 0. 173∗ 1. 753∗ 20. 078 Motivations of Taiwanese Island Tourists 0. 543 21. 904 20. 914 21. 457 0. 409 0. 658 20. 342 20. 391 0. 021 0. 887 0. 007 1. 527 0. 029 0. 652 0. 008 0. 372 0. 034 2. 622∗ 0. 034 2. 622∗ 0. 064 2. 099∗ 0. 030 1. 791 0. 100 2. 122∗ 0. 036 2. 394∗ 0. 044 0. 540 0. 044 0. 540 0. 071 1. 258 0. 027 1. 791 0. 123 2. 786∗ 0. 052 2. 228∗ 0. 007 2. 532∗ 0. 007 2. 532∗ 0. 039 2. 327∗ 0. 032 4. 782∗ 0. 080 2. 122∗ 0. 041 2. 350∗ p , 0. 05. 313 314 Sung Hee Park et al group size in Penghu. On the other hand, marketing drivers infl uenced pull motivation (facilities and services) when Taiwanese tourists made decisions about group size during their pleasure trips in Phuket. 1998)–model 1 (Table 3), which consists of four independent motivational predictors, showed that: (1) “ special events” were positively related to the trip duration of Phuket tourists (b ¼ 0. 166, p , 0. 05); and (2) “ natural resources” were negatively related to the group size of Phuket tourists (b ¼ 20. 189, p , 0. 05). Model 2, with an added marketing-drivers predictor, indicated no statistical signiï¬�cance between predictors, and trip duration and group size. After entering moderating interaction variables (moderator × independent variables), model 3 indicated that the interaction resulted in an increase in squared multiple correlations, suggesting moderating effects. The results supported three of the hypotheses, including: (1) Hypothesis 1b: the moderation effect of marketing drivers on the relationship between push motivation (experience) and trip duration for the Phuket tourists (b ¼ 2. 370, p , 0. 05, DR2 ¼ 0. 036); (2) Hypothesis 2a: the moderation effect of marketing drivers on the relationship between push motivation (experience) and group size for the Penghu tourists (b ¼ 1. 753, p , 0. 05, DR2 ¼ 0. 052); and (3) Hypothesis 4b: the moderation effect of marketing drivers on the relationship between pull motivation (facilities and services) and group size for the Phuket tourists (b ¼ 1. 545, p , 0. 05, DR2 ¼ 0. 041). However, the interaction terms between pull motivation and the marketing drivers did not yield any additional variance (DR2) for trip duration and group size during the Penghu trip. Therefore, marketing drivers have only a partial moderating effect on the relationship between push and pull motivations, and tourists travel behaviors. Marketing drivers infl uenced push motivation (experience) when Taiwanese island tourists made decisions regarding trip duration in Phuket, while marketing drivers affected push motivation (experience) when making decisions about Conclusion and Implications The aim of this study was to investigate a moderating relationship of marketing drivers between push and full motivations, and tourist travel behaviors, including trip duration and group size for Taiwanese tourists traveling to domestic and international islands on their pleasure trips. The major ï¬�ndings of this study have signiï¬�cant managerial implications for island tourism, and destination marketers and managers. First, the results of conï¬�rmatory factor analyses showed four underlying motivational factors and one marketing factor across both Penghu and Phuket islands. “ Experience” is the strongest push force among Taiwanese tourists choosing to travel to island destinations, whether they are domestic or international. “ Natural resources”, “ facilities and services” and “ special events”–including festival events, food sanitation and safety, and spacious beaches–are signiï¬�cant pull motivations for Taiwanese island tourists. Pricing and programming strategies on island facilities and services and on various activities and events will be effective for encouraging these tourists to travel to both islands. In particular, “ natural resources” is the most important motive for Taiwanese tourist. Thus, destination marketers need to focus on delivering the proper products and packages to increase and maintain the satisfaction of Taiwanese tourists. Second, the equivalence of the factor structures across the Penghu and Phuket tourists was conï¬�rmed. This result is important for managers and academics alike, because it Motivations of Taiwanese Island Tourists demonstrates that the items used to measure push motivations, pull motivations and marketing drivers are relevant across very different destinations. In fact, as an island destination among Taiwanese tourists, Phuket generally showed higher motivations than Penghu. Measurement invariance was illustrated, however. Therefore, academics and managers can feel conï¬�dent that they are capturing the relevant constructs; they can also simplify their market research by using the same survey items across destinations. Third, “ special events” and “ natural resources” are well-known images of Phuket for Taiwanese island tourists. These pull motivations directly infl uenced their trip duration and travel group size. Phuket destination marketers and managers need to make continuous efforts to highlight and sustain these favorable images for Phuket visitors. In addition, the results showed that marketing drivers increased trip duration, based on the push motivation (“ experience”) of Phuket tourists, and also increased group size based on the pull motivation (“ facilities and services”) of Phuket tourists. Therefore, using effective marketing strategies–such as an interesting package of cultural experiences, discount package tours and promoting accommodations, facilities or restaurants–will bring more people to Phuket because Taiwanese tourists are more attracted to their exotic and culture resources than to their domestic island. In addition, owing to intense competition and the buying power of tour operators, tourists could be provided relatively more luxurious and comfortable facilities and accommodation in Phuket than in Penghu. Business in Phuket would beneï¬�t by linking these motivational factors to marketable products (packages/tours) for longer vacation periods and to various group sizes, to attract Taiwanese tourists. 315 For Penghu tourists, marketing drivers increased group size based on the push motivation (experience). Penghu might be an attractive destination to some domestic Taiwanese. There is no language barrier, and a relatively informative and convenient atmosphere, while allowing tourists to have different and exotic experiences, compared with Phuket (Carr, 2002). Therefore, Penghu should emphasize its strengths, such as short travel distances and time-consumption, accessibility (via air and cruise ship) and lower travel costs, to domestic Taiwanese tourists (Gartner, 1996). Adaptive pricing strategies and promotions will be leverage for bringing in large groups of people among college students, family reunions, and company memberships. Island tourism generally has social isolation, accessibility and facilities that can be possible barriers to desired activities (Hall & Page, 2006). Both Penghu and Phuket need to differentiate destination branding and focus their efforts on utilizing their unique resources to shape their own niches in the competitive island tourism market. With effective positioning and proper marketing strategies that refl ect their niche markets, the island destinations will improve and sustain their competitiveness. This study has limited the generalizability of the ï¬�ndings to Taiwanese island tourists because data were collected only from package tourists at the sites. References Alegre, J., & Pou, L. (2006). The length of stay in the demand for tourism. Tourism Management, 27(6), 1343—1355. Alghamdi, A. (2007). Explicit and implicit motivation towards outbound tourism: A study of Saudi tourists, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow. Anderson, J. C. (1987). 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