Long-stay visitors from Japan
Annual revenues at Tsou-Ma-Lai are about NT$200 million, coming mainly from lodging, food and drink, and admission tickets.
Director Tian Qiusong says that it is difficult to book a room at any of the farm’s lodging facilities, whether it be the forest cabins, the meadow villas, or the newly completed high-end hotel and conference center. He says that mainland groups are no exception, and to get weekend lodging it is necessary to make reservations at least three months in advance.
Tian relates that most foreign visitors come from Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. There are very few individual travelers from mainland China. Of particular note is that this year some Japanese visitors have begun coming for long stays, which is to say for a month or two at a time.
Most of these people are “business vacationers.” By day they visit Taiwanese businesses, play golf with their clients, or take day trips to the Yoichi Hatta Memorial Park in the Siraya National Scenic Area. At dusk they return to the farm and, in the last light of the day, take a walk or go on a bike ride through the forest trails, surrounded by alpine vistas.
Tian says that long-stay Japanese visitors spend NT$60,000 per month at Tsou-Ma-Lai. In comparison, respondents to a survey taken in Japan in 2011 said they would only be willing to spend on average NT$10,000 to visit Taiwan. Obviously Tsou-Ma-Lai can draw big spenders.
Tsao Shao-hwei says that the reason Taiwan’s recreational farms are popular is that: “They’ve got the service, the scenery, and the agriculture, yet they’re easily accessible.” Taking a macro look at the distribution of recreational farms in Taiwan, the main concentrations are in Yilan, Nantou, and Miaoli counties. On the other hand, there are relatively few in the traditional rice baskets of Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung.
“The recreational farm industry is an integrated services industry that emphasizes the ‘soft power’ of service, and can’t just be copied.” While mainland officials, businesspeople, and academics come to Taiwan looking for clues, Tsao has great confidence in the “cultural depth” underlying Taiwan’s recreational farms, and feels the mainland still has a long way to go.
It won’t be hard for the mainland to construct large recreational farms. But if they are all produced out of a single, stereotypical mold, then people will visit once but never go back again.
In Taiwan, on the other hand, where there is a foundation of high-quality and high-tech agriculture underpinning the rural way of life, each recreational farm has its own unique selling points, and each has created its own “ambience” that can emotionally connect with visitors, making them unforgettable experiences for visitors both local and international. This is the real essence of the Taiwan recreational farm experience.