A study of the effects of co-branding between low-carbon islands and recreational activities

Abstract

The development of sustainable tourism on islands is increasingly based on the concept of “low carbon” practices. From a co-branding perspective, this study discusses how to combine recreational activities to create a differentiated tourism landscape, and thus positively influence post-visit tourist reactions when the focal islands emphasize their low-carbon practices. This study used a questionnaire survey to study Taiwan's Penghu and Republic of Palau, two islands that have adopted low-carbon policies, and a total of 341 and 298 valid samples were collected, respectively. The findings are the following. (1) Regardless of the island, tourists recognized the low-carbon strategies of both islands, with those of Palau receiving greater attention. (2) The tourists were most familiar with motorized water activities, and the degree of participation in such activities was the highest. However, there were significant differences in degrees of familiarity with and participation in other recreational activities. (3) On both Penghu and Palau, islands and motorized water activities represent the optimal match, and the optimal match percentage of Penghu for all types of recreational activity is 67%. (4) Compared with tourists on Palau, those on Penghu are more willing to recommend a visit to others or revisit the island.

Keywords:

• island tourism
• low-carbon island
• recreational activities
• co-branding effects
• tourist reaction

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. Austitn Rong-Da Liang and Ms. Yi-Ling Chen for the assistance of data collection. Particular thanks to author's student Ms. Yi-Ling Chen provided the sources of analysing questionnaires and a few references from her unpublished master dissertation in Chinese. Then the author reconstruct and rewrite this paper in English.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.