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A study of key factors for country life in a health resort

ABSTRACT
As the life expectancy in Taiwan has gradually increased, and more and more people retire at a young age, even below 50, the duration of retired life for Taiwanese may be prolonged to nearly 30 years. Most of the retirees are in very good health conditions and full of energy during the first 25 years or even longer. Hence, an early plan for arrangements for the 25-year retired life is indeed essential to creating a cozy, healthy living environment, allowing one to live happily after retirement while having a place for leisure activities. Finding an excellent environment for a resort for leisure and health purposes for retirees is thus an important tip. In recent years, the area of fallow and abandoned farms has rapidly increased, as a result of cheap produce since Taiwan joined WTO. The government has thus encouraged the use of idle farms in the leisure industry, as it may not only stimulate development of rural villages, but also facilitate the emergence of resorts for leisure and health purposes due to the excellent environment in rural villages. Consequently, many farm resorts for leisure and health purposes run by retirees sprouted. The purpose of this study is to figure out the development trend of farm resorts for leisure and health purposes, and to gain a further understanding of the key decision factors for retirees in selecting a farm resort for leisure and health purposes.
¡@¡@In this study, three individual health and culture villages established by Best Future, Gobo Service, and Formosa Plastics Group, are selected to perform an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis of five possible key decision factors in selecting farm resorts for leisure and health purposes, such as prices, health care, geographic environment, hardware facilities, and leisure activities, in order to understand the factors that retirees have taken into consideration when choosing a favorable farm resort for leisure and health purposes. Interviewees comprise the following: 3 personnel from the industry, including Mr. Bai, Yao-Ren, President of Baofa Retirement Village, Mr. Chu, Tai-An, Director of Gobo Sheng-en Leisure and Health Club House, and Mr. Song, Ru-Kuei, responsible person of He-nong Health & Life Accommodation; 3 personnel from government agencies, including Mr. Su, Jhong-Yuan, Deputy Director-general of the Tourism and Traffic Bureau of Kaohsiung County Government, Mr. Yang, Siao-Jhih, Chief of the Agriculture Section of Meinong Township Office, and Ms. Jhang, Ting-Siou from the Social Affairs Bureau of Kaohsiung City Government; 3 scholars from the academia, including Dr. Chen, Wei-Ren, Chairman of the Department of Leisure, Recreation and Tourism Management of Shu-Te University, Dr. Hsieh, Ching-Hsiang, Ex-Chairman of the Department of Plant Industry of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, and Dr. Luo, Rong-Heng, Chairman of the Department of Finance of Nan Kai University of Technology; and 3 customers living in each of the three health and culture villages established by Best Future, Gobo Service, and Formosa Plastics Group, a total of 18 participants from 4 different categories. In-depth interviews are then conducted with all of the interviewees to collect qualified and quantified data from AHP questionnaires for further analysis, in order to better understand the key decision factors in selecting farm resorts for leisure and health purposes.
Through simultaneous collection and analysis of qualified and quantified data from AHP questionnaires, five key decision factors highly regarded by the government agencies, scholars, business owners, and customers in terms of health and culture villages are gained. The hierarchy of these five key decision factors, such as prices, health care, geographic environment, hardware facilities, and leisure activities, determined by their respective relative weights, is as follows: geographic environment (0.287) > hardware facilities (0.286) > prices (0.218) > health care (0.186) > leisure activities (0.176). The key decision factors in these three health and culture villages established by Best Future, Gobo Service, and Formosa Plastics Group with top five average weights are: 1. hardware facilities in Chang Gung Health and Culture Village (0.105); 2. geographic environment in Gobo Sheng-en Leisure and Health Club House (0.095); 3. geographic environment in Chang Gung Health and Culture Village (0.092); 4. hardware facilities in Gobo Sheng-en Leisure and Health Club House (0.090); and 5. geographic environment in Baofa Retirement Village (0.087). The above results roughly correspond to the results obtained through AHP analysis of qualified and quantified data.
Key words: Leisure industry, Retiree, Farm resort, Analytic Hierarchy Process

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0814108-132547
Date14 August 2008
CreatorsWu, Wen-Hao
ContributorsDr. Huei-Mei L, Dr. Hsien-Tang Tasi, Dr. Tsuang Kuo
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageCholon
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0814108-132547
Rightscampus_withheld, Copyright information available at source archive

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