The New Zealand Experience
Exploring the New Zealand tourist experience from a Taiwanese perspective
Duncan Gibb and Bella Chung
Introduction
Tourism contributes significantly to New Zealand's economy and also promotes the NZ brand internationally. As an industry that contributes $15.9 billion to GDP , (6.1%), it is important that we measure and improve the way tourists perceive New Zealand.
Tourists from different countries experience NZ differently. Cultural norms, language, all affect how visitors interact with NZ. Reports by Tourism New Zealand found that Chinese visitors and other key asian markets satisfaction scores were lower than that of other western countries.
Satisfaction scores provide solid qualitative data that can be measured over time to see how NZ is performing. Unfortunately they do not address the “Why”. What is it about the kiwi experience that makes these satisfaction scores lower and what does their experience look like?
Purpose of this research
This research documents the Taiwanese experience using design research methodology and provides readers with an insight into the issues that non-native English speakers face when visiting NZ. It also identifies areas of the visitor experience that require more research in order to be further understood, and addressed. This research can be used as an example of how we can better understand tourist experiences and provide examples of ways to “design” better services.
Scope
The number of Taiwanese visitors to NZ each year is growing. Between the 2018 tourist year and 2019, visitors from Taiwan increased by 27%. Taiwan is also culturally similar to China. Chinese mandarin is Taiwan’s national language, and a majority of Taiwanese are of Han descent.
Of the 303,000 Chinese tourists that came to NZ in 2018, 55% of them were independent professionals aged 24 - 55. Although our research participants are Taiwanese, they share similar characteristics culturally with this demographic. Insights drawn from this research could be tested in further studies looking into Chinese tourists experience here.
This research was self funded and addresses the Taiwanese experience only. Further research would include New Zealand stakeholders such as immigration personnel, tourism owner/operators, hospitality industry and restaurant owners and staff, in order to present their experience of the same visitor group.
PROCESS & METHOD
Research Goals
- Identify issues that detract from the Taiwanese NZ visitor experience and highlight areas needing further research
- Discover gift-buying and gift-giving motivations
- Provide a template for further research into tourists experience
Research Questions
- What is the NZ digital tourist experience like?
- What areas need improvement in the NZ experience for Taiwanese?
- How do Taiwanese make purchasing decisions about gifts?
Research Methods
Taiwan Traveller Interviews
Conducted five 1 on 1 interviews with people who had travelled overseas to learn about their travel and gift-giving motivations.
Extended User Shadowing
In order to accurately understand the New Zealand experience, researchers employed user shadowing over a period of one week with three participants from Taiwan.
Line Group Diary Study
The journey was planned in Line, a chat app that is popular in Taiwan and Japan. Participants had a group chat where everyone posted images and participants could ask questions prior to arriving.
Post Travel Interviews
Participants were interviewed at the end of the trip, before returning to Taiwan, to learn what areas of the NZ experience they didn’t like and what areas of that experience could be improved. Follow up interviews with selected questions were conducted three months later, by phone.
KEY FINDINGS
Connectedness is Important
Line is a popular messaging app in Taiwan and Japan and has similar functionality to China’s WeiXin. It serves as a messaging app, displays current news, and has its own digital payment system. 84% of people in Taiwan have this app on their phone
Prior to arriving, participants purchased SIM cards in Taiwan so when they arrived they could immediately use the Internet and didn’t waste precious holiday time trying to set up Internet in with confusing English instructions.
Main functions of Line:
- Instantly share with family members your experience
- Let family members know you are safe and contactable
- Easy place to share links and booking details
- Discuss where to eat dinner
- Provide record of who spent what
Local Time vs Tourist Time
Throughout the trip participants operated to a different schedule to New Zealanders. Participants expected to be able to shop after dinner, a common activity in Taiwan. In all areas we visited except for Queenstown, the shops were closed and participants didn’t really know what to do. When the shops were open during the day, we were busy doing tourist activities and didn’t have time to explore the shops.
Gifts - essential for workplace relationships
In China and Taiwan gift giving is an important ritual that happens when people come back from holiday or an overseas business trips. The types of gifts that are purchased and motivations for buying differ when giving to family, workmates and friends. Through the trip we went to various souvenir shops but a bulk of the presents were purchased in Auckland at either a supermarket or a souvenir shop before flying back to Taiwan.
Personal Gifts
- Local products that aren’t necessarily well known
- NZ made clothing, beauty or health products
“I didn’t gift honey because it was expensive. I can only use it for myself not as a gift”
Gifts for Workmates
- Help to build up relationships with colleagues
- Can be seen as a kind of favour
- Internationally recognized brands
- Packaging needs to look expensive
"Half of my gifts aren’t for me, they’re for my workmates. Some gave me money, some I’ll give as a gift.”
“If I give workmates a gift, next time I ask for help it’ll be easier”
Information Overload
Unspoken Rules
Restaurants and cafes have a lot of unspoken rules that influence the overall experience of dining. When walking into some restaurants participants didn’t know whether to wait for a seat or sit down directly. Payment was also another hard thing to understand. Sometimes you need to pay first other restaurants you pay later. All these rules resulted in a feeling of inconsistency which has a large sway in the perceived value of a meal.
Deciphering Menus
Restaurant menus in New Zealand rely heavily on text to describe the dish. For a non-native English speaker, it is hard to read all the dishes and decide on what to order, especially while a waiter is close by. Participants often used their phone to google the dishes before choosing what to order.
How Might We:
- Create safer areas at night in small towns for travellers
- Breakdown language barriers when eating at restaurants
- Design menus that can be read easily by non-native English speakers
- Help tourists to find nighttime activities that meet their expectations
- Look at shopping as an activity you experience and not as a simple monetary transaction
- Make souvenirs that are designed for giving to workmates
NEXT STEPS
This research resulted in some really interesting findings but also highlighted a lack of awareness of tourists experiences in New Zealand.
Moving forward we need to:
- Understand the whole picture - different countries, tourist operators, NZ citizens.
- Interview Chinese tourists and find similarities and differences when compared to Taiwanese tourists
- Share findings and HWM questions with tourism industry to start discussion about how to improve the NZ experience for Taiwanese.