Abstract
Interpretation services provided in Taiwan forest recreation areas include ecological tours and forest education opportunities that are readily available to tourists. The purpose of this study was to determine how general interpretive guiding efforts affect tourists’ perceptions of the forest, and environmental affection and commitments. Data are from a quarterly monitoring project from 2013 to 2017 at 3 forest recreation areas at Qilan Mt., northeastern Taiwan. In total, 1690 tourist samples were collected on site by a questionnaire survey using face-to-face interviews and sampling.. Results show that the interpretation can enhance ecological knowledge, and the effect was better than experience with environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and ecological courses. The benefits of interpretation indirectly affect environmental commitments and environmental sentiments by improving destination satisfaction. Tourists who have experience with environmental NGOs or ecological courses had a higher degree of satisfaction with Qilan Mt. Analysis of the sample of this study showed that half of repeat visitors were over 45 years of age, and the proportion of those repeat visitors who had experience with an environmental NGO or ecological courses was higher than that of first-time visitors. Repeat visitors accounted for 39.6% of the total sample in this study, and 77% of them had participated in interpretive guided tours, which was higher than the 66.4% of first-time visitors. The motivation for repeated visitations was mainly the attraction of the natural landscape. It is suggested that the sustainable operation of the Qilan area should be based on the premise of meaningful natural experiences to enhance destination satisfaction and the repeat visitation rate. Interpretive guiding is suggested to be in line with the ecological conservation story of corporate social responsibility as a communication tool to deepen the tourist experience.