A Comparative Study Of Independent Travel Behavior Of Cross-Strait University Students

With the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, the advancement of information technology, and the increase in the level of income and leisure time, China’s tourism industry has boomed and flourished tremendously. As Chinese travelers’personal travel experience and knowledge gained from the experience become extensively richer, package travel, which used to be the most common way to travel, is no longer able to serve the progressively diverse needs of the travelers. As a consequence, there has been a significant increase in the number of Chinese travelers who adopted a new travel style—independent travel, the nature of which allows travelers to have freedom, flexibility, and convenience as compared to package travel. The prevalence of independent travel in China has been further reinforced by the global travel trend of individual travelers. Fueled by all sorts of preferable conditions, the number of independent travelers in China has been growing substantially and irrepressibly.University students, one of the niche market segments in tourism industry, are considerably large in numbers. On account of the economic growth, not only has the level of consumption of university students risen, but a growing number of parents are now encouraging their children to gain valuable experience and relaxation via travel activities, in addition to the allurement of traveling itself, all of which have boosted the needs of university students for independent travel. Hence, as one of the emerging market segments in tourism industry, the university student independent travel market has proved itself a high-potential target market as well as a worthy subject of research. Therefore, it would help promote the development of the university student independent travel market by emphasizing the importance of examining independent travel behavior of university students and by grasping the overall essence of the characteristics and the needs of this market segment.This paper is intended as an investigation of the independent travel behavior of the university students in Shanghai and Taipei. This article proceeds in the following manner. Firstly, based on reviewing domestic and foreign literature associated with independent travel and travel behavior, two versions of questionnaires were designed: one in Simplified Chinese and the other in Traditional Chinese, and the questionnaires were then distributed amongst the university students in both Shanghai and Taipei. Secondly, a comprehensive analysis was performed using SPSS17.0, and the statistical techniques used by the auther include:frequency analysis, reliability analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis, and cross tabulation analysis. The results of the study indicated some similarities and many surprising differences between the independent travel behaviors of the university students in these two cities. Thirdly, on the basis of the findings, the author sought to analyze and discuss the causes of the similarities and differences between the demographics, travel behaviors, independent travel behaviors and travel motives of Cross-Strait university students by comparing the independent travel behavior of Shanghai university students to that of Taipei university students. Finally, important conclusions for the development of the university student independent travel market are suggested.