Tourism sector is one of the important sectors of the economy in Taiwan. The two key components of the tourism industry are tourists and destinations. It is the tourists themselves who choose their travel destination from a range of options. However, tourists from different countries possess different travel motivations, even though they are traveling to the same country or region. Hence, tourism industry must recognize this diverse travel motivation. The objective of this study is to explore the reason why Thai tourists choose Taiwan as a travel destination and understand the role of Taiwan food in motivating Thai tourists to travel to Taiwan.
Motivation dimensions are selected from past literature. In this research, the motivation factors are divided into two main categories, which are general travel motivation and food-related travel motivation. The general travel motivation factors consist of culture, scenery, and accessibility and service dimension, whereas the food-related travel motivation contain cultural experience, excitement, interpersonal relation, sensory appeal, and food brand image dimension. An online questionnaire has been done to test on these hypotheses. The collected data is examined using descriptive analysis and regression analysis. Empirical results reveal that one general motivation dimension (accessibility and service), and four food-related motivation dimensions (cultural experience, interpersonal relation, sensory appeal, and country food image) significantly affects Thai tourist’s behavioral intentions. Along with the discussion of the theoretical results, the managerial implications are also suggested, so that Taiwan could effectively develop marketing strategies to attract Thai tourists and customize its marketing to deliver more targeted promotional content to Thai people.

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