Verification of a destination image influence model for Taiwan bicycle tourism blogs for Chinese tourists

The impact of information technology increases day by day. The bicycle tourism industry in Taiwan has started to actively adopt internet applications in its development. The content of internet information in commercial behavior is an even more important development issue. This study constructed the following influence models: blog information recommendation, website experience, message trust, and destination image, and 388 Chinese residents that had visited Taiwanese bicycle tourism blogs in 2010 were used as research subjects. A structural equation model (SEM) was applied to test the model hypothesis. The results verified that blog information recommendation, message trust, and website experience all directly and positively influenced the destination image awareness of Chinese tourists. The study then discussed the research results and proposed several suggestions regarding the management aspect and research methods.