Innovative Cycling Tourism of Taiwan by Service Design Innovation Mdes at the London College of Communication

ICTW

Innovative Cycling Tourism of Taiwan Service Design Project

ICTW

Innovative Cycling Tourism of Taiwan Service Design Project

ICTW Cycle Taiwan

A cycling tourism service to inspire a sustainable and healthy way to explore Taiwan.

Major Project Design / Research Report by

Ginny(Kuo-Chen) Wu 23 November 2012

MDes Service Design Innovation (MDes Innovation and Creativity in Industry) London College of Communication, University of the Arts London

ACKNOWL Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to a number of people for their contributions and support, which helped me in my research and ideas for this project. Without their assistance over the past six months, this project would not have been accomplished successfully. Special thanks to my course tutors, Alison Prendivlle and Cordula Friedlander, whose guidance and encouragement enabled me to develop my understanding and improve my capabilities for developing this project. Thank you to collegemates for all the debates and suggestions, which enriched the process and contributed to the final results. Thank you to all friends who spent their time to participate in this project, and offered their views and feedbacks. The perspectives and opinions are very invaluable to the process. Thank you to all the cycling tourists and experts, who I have done interviews with, helped me to realise the potential of this project. Thank you to the director-Wei-Chun, Hsien of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau for the assistance and advice to understand the current status of the cycling environment in Taiwan and to realise opportunities to improve cycling tourism of Taiwan. Thank you to Yung-Chih Li the instructor of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Friends Bike Club of Taiwanâ&#x20AC;? and a professional cyclist, for providing me with professional information and knowledge about cycling in Taiwan. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my dearest family for their support and understanding throughout the duration of my studies.

CONTENTS Contents

Acknowledgements

Summary

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background

1.2 Statement of Intent

1.3 Field of Study

1.5 Objective

2.0 Research Methodologies

2.1 Research Aim

2.2 Research Area

2.3 Research Plan

2.4 Research Methods

3.0 Research Findings and Analysis

3.1 Target Users / Ausiences

3.2 Observation Results

3.3 Cyclist Experiences

3.4 Existent Resource Highlights

3.5 Literatures Review

3.6 Onsite Study

3.7 Co-Design

3.8 Research Conclusions

CONTENTS 4.0 Porject Design Process

4.1 Project Development Plan

4.2 Concept Generation

4.3 Project Development

4.4 Revision and Improvement

4.5 Branding

5.0 Design Outcome

5.1 The Service

5.2 Service Package

5.3 User Journey

6.0 Prototype:

6.1 Testing

6.2 Feedback

7.0 Porject Conclusions

7.1 Evaluation

7.2 Further Development

8.0 Supporting Materials

Bibliography

Appendices

SUMMARY Summary

The economic role of cycling is increasing and also growing within the tourism sector. Cycling gives people a healthy opportunity to train or simply enjoy the time with their family or friends. There is a good number of people riding bicycles around the world. It is not just fun, but also healthy. Moreover, it is an environmentally friendly mode of transport. Taiwan is a potentially strong market for cycle tourism because of the successful industry of bicycle manufacturing and also due to is climate, rich cultural history and natural beauty. The Taiwan Tourism Bureau is now promoting healthy and environmentally friendly travel by bicycle called “green travel” in order to revive the inbound tourism market and to bring tourism consumption back to all parts of the island as well. As part of the overall strategy, the service suggested here could become a strong ally. As a result, the offer of a cycle tourism service could potentially be a key factor in influencing a visitor's decision on how they travel around Taiwan.

This project aims to develop and innovate the cycling service of Taiwan, to satisfy the demands of the users and further enhance their connection to the surroundings during their visits. Thus this will create more meaningful tourist experiences in Taiwan. The development process for this project focused on a service, based on the users’ motivations, practices and experiences in the context of cycling and cycling tourism. A wide range of service design methods were employed in order to frame the problem and conceptualise the service design outcomes resulting in a cycling tourism service to inspire a more sustainable and healthier way to explore Taiwan,—“ICTW Cycle Taiwan”.

1.0 Introduction

Intro. 1.1 Background

1.2 Statement of Intent

1.3 Field of Study

1.4 Objective

1.1 Background

Taiwan has been recognized as the biggest country of bicycle manufacturing in the world since the year of 1972, and many cyclists are proud if having a bicycle that is made in in Taiwan because of its high quality, durability and innovative design. It is gradually becoming the center that provides innovative and unique products for the global bicycle market. (Bicycle Tourism, 2009) Although Taiwan has been recognized as the kingdom of bicycle manufacturing, there are nearly 94% of the total sales are for export, and only 6% are retained for domestic sales according to the statistics of Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan. (Bicycle Tourism, 2009) As the national economy grows and the GNP increases in Taiwan, the ownership of cars and motorcycles are more popular than bicycles in every household. In Taiwan, Cycling has never been a traditional mode of transport, but the number of people opting to explore Taiwanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s streets by bicycle has increased dramatically in the last ten years. The successful experience of the bicycle industry in Taiwan actually serves as a good model for countries working to develop bicycle-related business. As the fast growing of the sport of cycling and the cycle tourism of the tourism industry in the world, the evolutionary development of bicycle use in Taiwan began with the transportation function, then responded to the demand for leisure, and now is more combining it with tourism development. 6

Cycling tourism is now growing rapidly in Taiwan. “There is a market of 100 million domestic tourists in Taiwan annually.” (Taiwan Tourism Bureau, 2012) Taiwan is experiencing an increasing investment in and the popularizing of bicycle tourism and recreational cycling its citizens. Both central and local governments have been trying to stimulate the development of bicycle tourism and recreational cycling since 2002 the National Sports Council launched a policy of planning and Establishment of Bikeway System in Taiwan. In 2009, Taiwan rolled out the Asia's first comprehensive bicycle tourism plan, including rentals, special railway cars and guides for rides down the rugged coastline or up the island's steep central mountains. Since now, different kinds of events related to the cycling have been hold such as annual the cycling festival of Taiwan, the “round-island” cycle racing and so on. The industry of cycling tourism in Taiwan is still developing, and the number of doing it is continuing increasing currently for both local citizens and international visitors. But eventually, in order to give a better environment for the growing and bringing more international tourist to the island, not only cycling tourism is a market to be developed, but also some urban organization needs to be discussed further. 7

1.2 Statement of Intent

“It appears that bicycle usage and associated tourism activities has become a popular travel mode together with the rising environmentalism and increasing awareness for sustainable development.”(A Stratefic Study of Bicycle Tourism in Taiwan, 2003) In a growing tourism industry, it is important to know which kind of tourism type is applicable to the destination and which political issue needed to be considered when planning the types of tourism. There is no doubt that the cycling tourism in Taiwan has been kept developing and planning thoroughly by the government. In terms of Taiwan, cycling is an activity of leisure for local citizens more than a mode of “green” transportation. Since the first bicycle lane with recreational functions in Taiwan was constructed in the late of 1990’s, the model of cycling tourism had been established as well. (Bicycle Tourism, 2009) After the launching of first Asia comprehensive bicycle tourism plan, the government of Taiwan and Taiwan’s Tourism started to put effort into developing cycling tourism for both internal and external visitors and promoting it as a great way to experience the island of Taiwan. Different cycling routes have been continuing built up for some specific areas to fit the needs of different types of cyclists as well as various relevant events have been hold to attract more travellers. Although there’s a lot of efforts had been done, as a new growing market of cycling tourism still getting used to the cycling ways and hasn’t yet became well known as a cycling touring destination internationally, there’s a lot more needs to be improved especially when popularizing it overseas. 8

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f re eas vi ib ew ili ty

This project is aimed to syntegrate the study of recent demand and supply of the cycling tourism and analyze the exist factors through different perspectives which include cycling tourist, tourism industry, bicycle supply and manufacturing, recreational environment, land used planning and tourism marketing by using design thinking to achieve the higher goal to call for a combination of cycling tourism and green mode industry that is applicable to be applied across Taiwan for both local users and international visitors. In other words, it is about the understanding of the needs to explore the best approaches for cycling tourism that work best for tourist and cyclist to use.

Discover Researching on cyclist and cycling environment and data collecting.

Define

Data analysing and problem identifying.

Develop

Deliver

Creating ideas to solve the problems and project developing.

Service testing and prototyping.

(The design process-The 'double diamond' design process model)

1.3 Field of Study

This research has been done so far by drawing on the recent resource of Taiwan‘s cycling environment. Furthermore, the study has been expanded to other countries to compare the difference of cycling activities and cycling markets. “Cycling tourism in Taiwan is a new but fast-growing market in tourism industry.” (Bicycle Tourism, 2009) Since 2002, cycling tourism has been promoted as the best way for visiting and exploring the island of Taiwan. (Bicycle Tourism, 2009) The most important feature of doing cycling tourism in Taiwan is to follow the specific cycling routes that have been constructed by the government. (Taiwan Tourism Bureau, 2012) It also will be more convenient and much safer if people do following the routes since the island is still getting used to the cycling ways on general road. There are several routes for cyclist to choose to ride on, and the main three routes are the “east coast”, the “west coast” and the “round-island” trips. (Cycle in Taiwan, 2007-2010) The east coast is always the best place to beat the crowd and explore the nature of Taiwan, and it is very popular with local cyclist. The “round-island” trip is about 1,000km in total and can take around 10 to 12 days to complete or longer for the beginners and it is very popular for expert cyclists as a challenge. (Cycle in Taiwan, 2007-2010) There is also a number of international tourist would like to have it to experience the whole island. The “west coast” trip is the most 10

popular one in Taiwan and it is very easy to go on. Cyclists will have a lot experience on culture size and foods with this one. Depending on the interests of cyclists, they can choose whatever they want to accomplish their cycling trip in Taiwan.

1.4 Objective

The project is set out to capture a â&#x20AC;&#x153;good cycling tourism serviceâ&#x20AC;? in Taiwan. By proposing a research plan thoroughly, it will have the opportunity to be practiced through the collaboration of government, private associations, and target users. The investigation and research has to be done appropriately to understand the current issues and problems of doing cycling tourism in Taiwan; and further seek the potential to develop it more. Using the intention of studying service design to develop a new innovative service system for cycling tourism in Taiwan. To stimulate the usages of bicycles as well, the plans for innovative promotion strategies are needed. Focus on The research process is basically focus on the observation and interview first to gain the firsthand information and some literatures will be need as references to collect and analyse the datum more accurately. Focusing Process Research

Current Cycling Environment

Problems and Challenges IdentiďŹ cation

Development and creating

Prototyping and delivering

Innovative Cycling Tourism

2.0

Research Methodologies

Research 2.1 Research Aim

2.2 Research Area

2.3 Research Plan

2.4 Research Methods

2.1 Research Aim

In terms of Taiwanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tourism industry, cycling tourism is still a new growing market has a lot of space to be improved to explore the best approaches for the current demand of the cyclist and visitors. In order to develop and deliver the better approach, the task of researching needs to been done properly to analyse the current problems and potential opportunities. In the other word, regarding to identify the problems before further explore the context, the methodologies for doing the research and the approaches of managing this project must be carefully considered. A strong proposal, which is very important for approaching a successful project, will be done by having a thorough research plan first.

2.2 Research Area

The research area is based the cycling status of Taiwan to identify the most important features of developing cycling tourism here and further expanded the study to some other countries. To compare with other countries is to help understanding more about the differences both on the advantages and disadvantages to do the further improvement.

2.2 Research Plan

The research plan is to allocate the tasks for further investigation that are needed to be comprehended to ensure that the project is adequately resourced and communicated prior any activities involved. The project context can be define more appropriately by focusing on specific problems and the potential outcome will be able to be estimated though a carefully research process plan. The research process primarily will be a series of user-centred research focusing on communicating and interacting with target users, and at once, will be expanding involved with representative associations and industries as the research participant as well to acquire and investigate the relevant datum more accurately. Observing and colleting general datum both in Taiwan and others countries will be kept continuing as the secondary research methodologies to have more comparisons from different perspectives. Through the appropriate activities of researching, the outcome of the project will be the practicable approaches and possible tools to respond the demand of users truly.

2.4 Research Methods

Preliminary Research Observation

Observing is the most radical research method to understand the target audience of this project. The purpose of observing of this project was to know about how cyclists or cycling tourists interact with cycling equipment and tourism technology they are using currently and commonly. Taking photography, notes, and sketching were the main media to record usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; behaviors. From observing, we could see the most obvious status of the current environment of cycling both domestically and internationally. Some features from the observing might be important to be considered for this project. Communication

Communicating with users through general conversation can be the easiest method used to understand the perspectives and opinions of users on how they feel about current service they are

using. From the communicating and inquiring of this project, we realised the common demands of cyclists and cycling tourist and it helpd to understand the most basic opportunities for current cycling services and technologies of Taiwan. 17

Online Surveys

There was an online questionary created to ask the relevant questions of doing cycling and gather qualitative information from a variety of people. The online survey allowed the receivers having more

time to think and answer the open-ended questions. The answers of the survey might not be elaborate or accurate, but it still helped to gather the most common information from cyclists. The online survey gathered the information on what purposes people often thought about to go for cycling and what decision-making and planning process people usually went through for a cycling trip. The survey also accumulated the information on the cycling conditions and problems they would concern about as they prepared to do for a cycling trip or tourism. Interviews

Interviewing different level cyclists was to explore and gather more cycling information and datum. Asking particular questions through the interviewing to obtain qualitative information on their

perspectives about doing cycling and tourism in Taiwan as well as on their memorable cycling experience to understand what are the most significant to them as a cycling tourist and what makes them positive and negative. In addition, the main personas will be selected as well from the interviews to start analyse valuable datum to understand the most principal demands of current cyclists and cycling tourists in Taiwan. Expert Interviews

Expert interviews brought me to meet more experts on doing cycling and cycling tourism. The interviews were carried out with Wei-Chun, Hsien who is the director of Taiwan Tourism Bureau, Yung-Chih Li who

is the instructor of the Friends Bike Club of Taiwan and Louisa Wei who is an international expert cyclist. Interviews questions contained cyclist concerns and issues for current cycling environment, market, cycling 18

tourism development, and strategies in Taiwan.

Literary Researches and Existent Resources Studying Communicating with users through general conversation can be the easiest method used to understand the perspectives and opinions of users on how they feel about current service they are using. From the communicating and inquiring of this project, we realised the common demands of cyclists and cycling tourist and it helpd to understand the most basic opportunities for current cycling services and technologies of Taiwan.

Secondary Research

The research had to be done more thoroughly after the primary datum what were collected to further develop the ideas and explore the best approaches. The following main points should be concerned about after having and understanding the approximate ideas from preliminary research in order to gather the needed information more entirely and to make the project more comprehensibly. Communication and Interviews A communication plan was made to keep having reflation from the users and recruiting for more research participants as well. To keep communicating with users would help to gather and obtain the more updated information. Onsite Observation Having cycling tourisms with selected cyclists to observe them onsite and record the whole trip process in order to understand their activities firsthand as well as to have chances taking different types or levels of cycling tourism to different cities and countries. Having cycling tourism in different countries would have the comparison and more input from different perspective for the project. 19

Ethnographic Research A diary for the selected users that recorded their experience through the project in order to collect more detail cycling behaviours of the users. Expert Advice

Interviewing with experts and studying on their experiences are to obtain more opinions as well as professional knowledge. The recommendations that the experts provided for this project allowed

me to think about the ideas more practically. Co-Design

Designing games to have interaction activities with participants allowed them to share their perspectives more. They could express their first feelings and opinions more easily and

naturally through playing the interaction. Activities Analysis

Having interactive communication with users and mapping their journey. It helped to visualise the existent service using of users and understand if there was any gap between

every touch point more easily and obviously. Data Analysis

Which was the Identification and analysis of the information and results from the researching. It was very important to analyse the information on what had been gathered previously to really understand

the service and further find the opportunity to improve them more. Data Collection and Profile Establishing contacts with representative associations and users in order to acquire more relevant datum and further profile them. 20

3.0 Research Finding and Analysis

Research Analysis 3.1 Target Users / Ausiences

3.2 Observation Results

3.3 Cyclist Experiences

3.4 Existent Resource Highlights

3.5 Literatures Review

3.6 Onsite Study

3.7 Co-Design

3.8 Research Conclusions

3.1 Target Users / Audiences

The primary target users and audiences were selected first in order to aim at the right objects for doing this project. The users and audience from the research who might have the impact to the ideas of this project were focused on: Primarily age 18 to 55

According to the statistics of Taiwan Tourism Bureau, 17% are under age 30, 44% are age 30 to 45, 33% are age 46 to 55, and 6% are age 56 to 65. (Taiwan Tourism Bureau, 2012) Ages Under 17 30-45 45-55 56-65 0

Existent Resource

People or visitors who had experience of cycling trip in Taiwan and might also enjoy or interested in not only cycling itself but also eating out, visiting historic and culture sites, shopping, exploring the nature and doing other sporting activities. 80% for Leisure

100 million

*There is a market of 100 million domestic tourists in Taiwan annually *80% of it is doing cycling for leisure and recreation

General User / People have bikes or no bikes According to the statistics of Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, there’s only 4.8% population in Taiwan own private bicycle. 4.78% Own Private Bicycles Using Other Transpotation

18.26%

24.76% Own Private Cars

52.2% Own Private Motorcycles

People either do cycling or not / Lover or never do

According to Council for Economic Planning and Development, there’s only 3% population riding on bicycle and 80% of it is for leisure using. (Council for Economic Planning and Development, 2011) Only 3% of people in Taiwan ride on bicycle

20%

General uses

77% use other modes of transportantion 80% Leisure & Recreative Cycling

Cycling Associations / Groups

The relevant organisations include private cycling associations or groups and the relevant ministries of government. People live in different places, city, or countries with cycling experience or not

Comparing with the cyclist and cycling tourism of other countries besides of Taiwan from diﬀerent perspective in order to analyse more about the demand of current cycling tourism market in Taiwan. 23

3.2 Observation Results

By observing, it was easily to see and realise the most obvious and real-life status of current cycling environment though. There were some features from the observing might be important to be considered for this project. Who do cycling and why?! Generally understanding the reasons of why people do cycling and who usually do cycling. * Reference 1.

Professional Training Using

Cycling to work

Cycling to School

Leisure Cycling

Recreative Cycling for Family

Cycling for Hanging out with friends.

Where to ride A lot of different cycling routes and several specific cycling areas had been constructed for different cycling purposes in Taiwan. The purposes for cycling in Taiwan can be categorised into arts, cultures, natural landscape, sport, leisure, and foods. * Reference 11.

Cycling on the general roads

Cycling on the planned routes In the parks

To the mountains

Riding on planned routes for different purpose

Riding to specific areas for leisure

* Reference 11.

Riverside cycling

Problems I Saw There were some obvious problems of current cycling environment that might have the opportunity to be improved or to be solved by using or getting right service. * Reference 7.

Cyclists do not follow the rules

* Reference 8.

Get confused on the routes

Unable to know where to start and where to end

Riding on planned routes for different purpose

Dangerous caused because of other occupation

* Reference 11.

Confusing cycling routes

3.3 Cyclist Experiences

Interviews

Methods for the interviewing There are many ways to do interview and it is important to select the medias first before doing it in order to prepare and know the way to record the contents appropriately and carefully. Making a video call or a phone call, asking questions by sending e-mail and talking to people face to face were the main medias to record the contents of interviews for this project.

Vedio Call

Phone Call

E-mail

Face to Face

Main Questions to Ask At the stage of preliminary investigation, the main questions that needed to be asked about and to be concerned about were: At the stage of preliminary investigation, the main questions that needed to be asked about and to be concerned about were: 1. Why, when, and where do you cycle? – Think about the purpose of doing cycling 2. How do you think about your cycling experience? – Think about the cycling environment that you have been experienced. – Think about the convenience of doing cycling in Taiwan. – Consider about the safety of cycling in Taiwan. 3. Do you have your own bike? If yes, how and when do you usually use them? 4. Is there any convenience or inconvenience you have been experienced since you own a bike? 5. Since the cycling can be a type of exercise, have you ever concerned about the problem of hygiene?

Result Highlights of Interviewing There were three main results and features from the interviewing that would be emphasized to further develop the concepts for Taiwan cycling tourism. Those all had the potential to be the main approaches to engage and attract more people or tourists doing cycling tourism to explore Taiwan. Result A. Jean Tsai, who dose cycling a lot, sees it as a chance to hang out with friends, travel out of the busy cities and explore more about the nature side of Taiwan. • A 30 years old cyclist who has 22 years experience on riding bicycle and 5 years experience on doing cycling tourism in Taiwan. • She just got one for herself two years ago because it is more convenient for her to do cycling whenever and wherever. Result B. David Yang, who does cycling oftentimes, takes it as an exercise to increase his breathing capacity more as well as a chance to go to some specific places or sight places to inspire himself. He does cycling to experience the cultures of Taiwan and enjoy it a lot. • A cyclist who is 30 years old and has 8 years experience on doing cycling in Taiwan. • He has his own bike and uses it a lot to go out. He thinks the routes on the general roads and streets in Taiwan still need to be improved more especially in the big and busy cites. Result C. Chung-Ta Chang, who does cycling oftentimes, takes it to have some exercising and training. At the same time, he is also a qourmet and likes to try different foods. He thinks that some cycling trips and routes would be able to bring him to some delicious and specific foods that he might never try before. • A 31 years old expert cyclist who is actually quite professional on doing cycling tourism in Taiwan. • He owns a private bike and does maintain cycling to exercise and train himself frequently 28

Expert Interviews

The interviews gave me the chances to meet more expert people on doing cycling or cycling tourism in Taiwan. From the interviews, more professional information and perspectives were gathered for the project. Result A.

Yung-Chih Li, who is the instructor of the “Friends Bike Club of Taiwan” and a professional cyclist, guides a lot of cyclists in Taiwan about the ways of doing cycling in Taiwan. The club was established by him and his friends who were all keen to do cycling in Taiwan. They hopes to provide a better service of doing cycling in Taiwan and share their cycling experience for the cyclists is order to engage and attract more and more people to this activity in Taiwan. There are some main points that he thinks about current service of cycling in Taiwan and some of them might have the opportunities to be improved to make the service better. • Cycling is the best way for using to explore and discover Taiwan. • Information about cycling in Taiwan should be intergraded more such as routes information, bike rental information, and the information of public transportation to transfer the private biles—otherwise it is hard for visitors and cyclists to find the right information of doing cycling or cycling tourism in Taiwan. Result B.

Louisa Wei, who is an expert cyclist from Hong-Kong, completed her first journey of doing cycling tourism around Taiwan this in August, 2012. The main things on what she thought about her experience this time were: • It was hard for her to find the right cycling routes that she really wanted to go on although there was a lot of different websites provided this kind information. • She mentioned that she had experienced different journey purpose by following the planed maps and routes that were provided by Taiwan Tourism Bureau. • Since she was a foreigner of doing tourism in Taiwan, she always needed maps or GPS to travel or cycle around. • When she did cycling in Taiwan, she would worry about the cycling safety and need information of instruction for it because she need to followed the laws to avoid any possible punishment. • She needed to find the specific places to park her bike.

3.4 Existent Resource Highlights

What the government of Taiwan has done

Both central and local governments are keen to develop the market of cycling tourism and seek to have more relevant plans and events to attract more people become a cyclist, which is very good and helpful for a new growing market of cycling tourism industry in Taiwan.

• A lot of events has been hold to attract more people to do cycling.

• The first Taiwan cycling festival was hold in 2010 and will be celebrated annually.

• More and more specific routes have been constructed for different purposes of doing cycling. 30

• There are always the cycling routes in popular visiting areas.

• Official website and e-book had published by government, but there is a lot of problems of using them.

Existent Experience Sharing and Cycling Societies and Clubs

A lot of websites and blogs were established by some experienced cyclists sharing their experiences and demands on doing cycling around Taiwan. Also, the number of relevant societies and clubs is increasing to be established to encourage people doing more cycling activities and sort out the demands or problems of the cyclists. • There are several private cycling societies and clubs established to help cyclists on their demands. • There are special private cycling societies for disable cyclists. • Many of private tourism offices are doing cycling tourism consultants and helping with the demands of cyclists. • There is a lot of private blogs to share their own experiences on doing cycling tourism in Taiwan. Most of them provides very detailed information and are even better than the office website. • People can find a lot of private blogs from international visitors and cyclists. 31

3.5 Literatures Review

Interviews

The Features of Taiwan for Cycling Tourism Studying on the features of Taiwan is a need to understand more about Taiwan to do the suitable scheme for Taiwan cycling tourism that is appropriate for all cyclists. Taiwan is an island country located at subtropical zone. The weather is always warm which is really suitable for people to travel.

From 16th century, it had been named â&#x20AC;&#x153;Formosaâ&#x20AC;? as well in Portuguese by Dutchman means the most beautiful island. The natural ecology of Taiwan is various and really worth to see and explore.

Most of beautiful places for cycling are focused on the east of Taiwan.

The distance to go around the island is about 1139 kilometers and it usually takes about 12 days to finish the cycling trip.

There are 23 millions and more population of Taiwan with various cultural backgrounds that are also really worth for people to explore. People in Taiwan are very enthusiastic to welcome others. * According to reference 10.

Definition of Cycling Tourism “Cycle Tourism can be defined as recreational visits, either overnight or day visits away from home, which involve leisure cycling as a fundamental and significant part of the visit.” (Cycling Tourism, 1999)

“Cycling tourism can be defined as trips to destinations where cycling is the main activity undertaken. Cycling tourists can be split into two distinct categories: • Holiday cyclists: They specifically look for holidays where there is the opportunity to cycle on more than one occasion, with a variety of interesting routes. Whilst they may not wish to cycle everyday, they consider cycling to be the main attraction or core activity. • Short-break cyclists: They tend to travel on a package tour, and cycle each day of their break. They usually travel within a group of family or friends.” (Developing a Niche Tourism Market Database, 3.5 Cycling, p25, 2008)

In this project the cycling tourism is defined as: A cycling tourist or visitor is a person of any nationality, who at some stages or other during his or her holiday uses the bicycle as a mode of transportation to travel around, and to whom cycling is an important part of this holiday to explore or visit different places. Short trips such as cycling to the “corner shop”, to work or to school are not included. 33

Comparison of bicycle tourism development in Taiwan and overseas Understanding the differences of cycling tourism development between Taiwan and other countries is the way to absorb the advantages from others and avoid the disadvantages while developing the concepts and ideas for the project.

Comparing Items

Development in Taiwan

Overseas Development

Origin of bicycle tourism

Government’s grant and plan

Public spontaneous demand

Bicycle users

Minor users; most are from fixed groups or associations

Many participators; frequent use of bikes

General understanding of bike lane

Bicycles shouldn’t ride on roads.

Privilege for cyclists

Construction of bike lanes

Segregation of special bicycle lanes from major traffic

Integration of bicycle lanes into the existing environment

Placement location

Scenic areas, amusement areas, country towns and riverside areas

Scenic areas, amusement areas, country towns and urban areas

Development review

Cannot fit into users’ real demand; lack of services, facilities, maintenance and management

Satisfying users’ demand and sound services and facilities

Development position

Preliminary stage of tourist development

Tools for commuting to schools and recreation

Development goals

Sport development

Sustainable development of green transportation mode and green products

( A strategic study of bicycle tourism in Taiwan, p9 2003)

3.6 Onsite Study

Cycling with selected cyclists to observe them onsite and record the whole trip process. It provided the opportunities to understand their activities firsthand and to have different types or levels of cycling tourism in other cities and countries. To further have comparison between them in order to have more inputs from different perspectives.

Having Cycling Tourism Around UK

Edinburgh

Galway

Ireland Nottingham London Brighton

Having Cycling Tourism in Taiwan

Taipei

Hualien

Kaohsiung

Galway

Ireland

Edinburgh

Nottingham

Brighton

London

* Information are very claer * Easy to find

* Information are very claer

* Easy to find and a lot of cycling plan

* There’s some od cycling tours

* Easy to find

* You can park anyway with railings

* Need to find parking area to lock it

* A lot of parking area

* City Bike (need to apply online first) * Private Rental

* Private Rental * Provive info. and trainning

* Information are very claer

* Information are very claer * Easy to find

* Private Rental * Provive info. and trainning

* Private Rental (need 100GBP Deposit)

* Not a lot of information * Really hard to find the info.

* Need to find parking area to lock it

* Private Rental

* Not a lot of information

* Hard to find one

* Easy to Transfer * Need to find parking area if you don’t have lock

* Private Rental * City Bike

* Information are very claer * Easy to find

* A lot of parking area

Near By

* Not a lot of information

Cycling Tours

* Easy to find

Public Transportation/ Parking Area

* Information are very claer * Easy to find

Bike Rental

* Easy to find

Cycling Routes/ Map Information

* Information are very claer

* Information are very claer * Easy to find

* Not a lot of information * Really hard to find the info.

* Not a lot of information

* Information are very claer * Easy to find

Rest/ Stay

* Information are very claer

* Information are very claer * Easy to find

* Not a lot of information * Doesn’t really provide

* Not a lot of information

* Information are very claer * Easy to find

Cycling Safety

Comparison

3.7 Co-Design

Using co-design as a method to interact with users to further understand them more and see if there is anything more that users would like to share about on their perspective and cycling experience. At this section, the users shared their opinion to me on what they would like to bring and need if they are doing a cycling trip or cycling tourism. It inspired me a lot on the ideas of developing this project. Tool A simple game designed for the selected users and cyclists to think about on what they usually would like to have or not to have and what they want to bring or do not want to bring with them while they decide to have a cycling trip or cycling tourism. (See Figure 3.7.1) WATER BOTTLE 水壺

Need 需要物品 WHEELS 備胎

TIM ER 計時 / SPEE / 計 DER 速器 LO CK E 鎖 R

HELMET 安全防護帽ht Lig 照明燈

Want 想要物品 Don’t Want 不想要物品

MIRROR 後照鏡

WATER BOT TLE 水壺

GPS 導航

MAPS 地圖

Don’t Need 不需要物品

Figure 3.7.1 Co-Design Tool

TO 維修 OLS 工具 BEL L 警鈴

BIKE CHA IN 腳踏車鏈 BATTER IES 備用電池 WATER BOT TLE 水壺

Results The percentages of what the users think they are most willing to bring with them and need to have while they are cycling are shown in the results as Figure 3.7.2

WATER BOTTLE

LIGHT

100%

GPS

MP3

100%

SMART PHONE

EQUIPMENT

100%

98%

Figure 3.7.2 The Results of Co-Design

3.8. Research Conclusions

Summary Conclusion / Problems Identification • People who cycle either have their own bike or need to rent one.

• Cyclists who have their own bikes think the cycling route information on general road should be improved more—otherwise they concern about the safety for just riding on the road. Also, the limited available public transportation for bikes in Taiwan causes the problems for cyclists sometimes. • Cyclists who don’t have their own bike always go to the planned cycling areas directly and hire a bike from bicycle rentals. • Most people who don’t bike concern about the safety of doing it. • Cycling tourism becomes more and more popular in Taiwan because of the government promoting and the enthusiasm of our inhabitants. • Not only the people who live in Taiwan but also some visitors who travel to Taiwan start to choose cycling as a mode to go around the island. They think it is the best way to see the beauty and explore more about this lovely island country. • Some people think they always go to the same cycling routes because they don’t have time to find the information on different routes. • Cyclists usually don’t worry about hygiene. People who do cycling tourism usually do not sweat a lot because the speed of doing it is not fast. People who do cycling as an exercise do not worry about it either because there’s always some stations on the roads for them to either take rest or clean themselves. 40

Understanding on the Different Types of User Journeys User Journey A.: Doing Cycling as a mode of tourism with a private bike for leisure and recreation.

User Journey B.: Doing Cycling as a mode of tourism without own bike for leisure and recreation.

4.0 Project Design Process

Design 4.1 Project Development Plan

4.2 Concept Generation

4.3 Project Development

4.4 Revision and Improvement

4.5 Branding

4.1 Project Development Plan

The project plan will be dived into 5 phrases.

AUG

Initiate to Identify

AUG

Create and Select

Start to identify the problems and challenges further to establish the knowledge on cycling tourism and to study more on the relevant literatures and cases. Stakeholders should be involved in this phrase to see if there is any opportunity to have collaboration. Start to generate some ideas based on the research identification. The ideas should be able to solve the problems that has been identify so far and should have the opportunity to be practiced. It will have some preliminary tests with the users to have some reflections and select a final idea for the project. After the preliminary testing, there must be some problems to be improved. It might be needed do a little more research to solve the problems of ideas and keep the project developing.

SEPT

Revise and Improve

Start to visualize the idea and prototype. It has to invite some participants to practice this activity and test the service design (touch points); and should be reiterated in order to achieve ideal result.

SEPT

Prototype

Define and Evaluate 44

Collect the feedback and suggestions from prototyping and start to evaluate the outcome.

4.2 Concept Generation

Approach

According to the results of previous “Research Conclusion”, the idea firstly had been generated to develop a new service for doing cycling tourism in Taiwan that would supply people a better medium finding the right information efficiently and inspiring themselves a sustainable and healthy way to really experience and explore Taiwan. Cycling Taiwan would not only be a mode to travel around Taiwan but also the best way to explore Taiwan deeply. The service would provide the routes and other guidance information to the users and further enable them to learn from their experiences of doing cycling tourism in Taiwan as well as to share those experiences to relive and strengthen the meaning of these experiences in one’s mind. As a result, they would really experience Taiwan and realise the advantages of doing cycling tourism in Taiwan. The service design would be more ideal if the government could conduct the plan to further recommend cyclists using it. Once the service could be used successfully and extensively, the service would be promoted and the popularisation of cycling tourism on Taiwan would be enhanced naturally. The ideal cycling tourism model can be seen in figure 4.1

Ideal Cycling Tourism Model Cyclists and Cycling Environment

Concept & Idea Development of the service

Organization and Community Promotion

Insist government to conduct the plan

Government build them, people use them

Influence

Cycling Tourism Enhancement Figure 4.1 Design Approach

Cycling Tourists Decision-Making In order to develop the project being more approachable for the users to use and make the project being more accurate to really meet the demands of the users, the conditions and the factors of what would influence the cycling tourist to do their trip planning and decision-making need to be understood properly. According to the interviewing and the studying of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Contemporary Tourism Systemsâ&#x20AC;? what have be done previously, there are various factors that act as constraints on tourism-related mobility. Some main factors that would be important to be considered as the ideas for developing this project and those can be seen in figure 4.2:

Accommodation and Transportation

Traveling Mates

Time Income

Gender Cycling Tourists Decision-Making Health

Culture Safety and Security Level of Influence: Low

Medium

High

Information and Education

Figure 4.2 Factors of Decision-Making For the detail definition of each factor please see P.123, Appendices 3.2

Demands of Cyclists

The other important thing to do before generating the concept is to do final analysis and integration of the most imperative demands of users to make the concept more appropriate and explore the best approaches for cycling tourism that work best for users to use. The result can be seen in figure 4.3. Route Info.

Guidence

Place Info.

Culture?! Exersice?!

Food?! Cycling Routes & Maps Inforamtion People need a platform to find the cycling route and maps correctly and efficiently.

Different Purpose People would like to have different cycling experiences for different cycling purposes.

Bike Rental & Bike Transfering People need the information on the bike rentals and public transportation for transport their own bikes.

Cycling Tours Always go to the same route People need more information on different cycling routes for them to have different cycling experience.

Sometimes cycling tourists need tour guides help them to plan on their cycling tourism.

Cycling Safety Users need knowledge and information for cycling safety.

Figure 4.3 Cyclistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Demands

Parking The guidance for finding parking areas.

Rest / Stay Cyclists and tourists would like to know about the places for taking a rest or to stay if they are doing long cycling trips.

Concept One

The idea was to create a cross-platform service where users would able to find the information correctly and efficiently. Within the service, users would also be able to create and record their own cycling routes and the idea was to provide users the opportunities to try and cycle to different cycling routes or areas where they haven’t been to except always “repeating” their cycling experiences. The innovation of the service concept was in the way information were integrated and catalogued and in the way people were be inspired to create their own routes if they would like to or have specific interests or purposes of doing cycling. Initial ideas for the way that information were catalogued and displayed could be seen in Figure 4.4 and 4.5.

Figure 4.4 Concept one The idea were be generated as figure 4.5

Purposes & Interests

Routes

Places Inspirations

Service

Idea Generation

Innovative Learning Guidence

Inspirations of Creating the Experiences Meaningful Experiences

Feedbacks on Experiences

Outcome

Information

A Cross-Platform Service

An online website for users

A Smart Phone app for tourists and cyclists

Integration of the cycling tourism information

Personal meaningful cycling experience

Connecting with current cycling status

Figure 4.5 Concept Generation One

Concept Two

In the new approach outlined in Figure 4.6, the service would cover the result from doing co-designing. The idea was to provide user a whole service package that would increase the interests of users to use it. The innovation of this service should be more interesting and attractive that enabled users to have special and memorable experiences on doing cycling tourism in Taiwan. People would be inspired more and experience Taiwan more by using this service package. This approach combined the first concept idea and would replace the first concept to develop the final project.

Platform to inspire and explore Inspire others

Feedbacks on Experiences

Interations and Promotions

Inspirations Create the Experiences

Innovative way to explore and experience

Service

Storing of Travel Memories and Experiences

Outcome Platform to learn and share

Idea Generation

Meaningful Experience

A Cross-Platform Service An online website for users A Smart Phone app for tourists and cyclists Integration of the cycling tourism information Personal recording to store cycling experience and tourism memories Connecting with current cycling status Contribution for promoting cycling tourism of Taiwan Figure 4.6 Concept Generation One

4.3 Project Development

Design Brief

Basing on the concepts that were generated in the previous section, the idea would able to be developed and visualized in this section. The two concepts were combined together and further developed to an appropriate service design for cycling tourism of Taiwan. The branding of the service was also developed to clarify the mission of this project to engage target users. The design was simultaneously prototyped in this section to test them in different aspects to make the best approach for the project.

Target Users

In order to develop the project properly and make the best approaches to the right groups, the target users had to be clarified first. According to the section 3.1, the final target users were selected to be: - Primarily ages from 18 to 55. - Existent tourists and cycling tourists. - People who are interested in cycling and take cycling tourism as a mode to travel around. - Willing to try and experience different things. - Willing to create own memorable tourism experiences. - People who would to learn from their experiences as well as to share them. 52

- People who are open minded willing to accept new stuff.

Project Ideas

The ideas of this project are to develop certain services to supply cyclists and tourists. The whole services are integrated into a service package to batter satisfy the demand of users. Within this service package user can find and use the products as following: Smart Phone App A smart phone application are designed to allows users find the cycling information correctly and efficiently, and create their own cycling experiences. There will be two version of this app: Free membership: Allowing users to download and use the limited functions such as finding the recommendation routes of cycling in Taiwan, using offline maps and using basic GPS founction. Paid membership: Allowing people to use advance function such as creating their own cycling routes, recording the routes, finding discount shops and restaurant, and using audio GPS and video maps.

Last Name:

Birth:

Male/Female:

Phone:

Route Plan

Bike Rental

Transportantion

Parking

Tour

GPS

Near By

Rest & Stay

Safety

Address:

Featured

Plan Routes

Offline maps

My Routes

Setting

Featured

Plan Routes

Offline maps

My Routes

Setting

Website The functions of the website are the same as the smart phone application for people to use according to the type of their membership.

HOME

Route Plans

Bike Rental & Retail

Nearby

Transportantion

GPS & Maps

Tour

Parking

Rest & Stay

Safety

ICTW Cycle Taiwan The sport of cycling is a fast growing as well as cycle tourism of the tourism industry. Cycling gives people the opportunity to train or simply

to ride with their spouses or friends. There are a good number of people riding bicycles

First Name:

Last Name:

around the world. It's not just fun, but also healthy. Even more, it gives us a non-polluted environment.

Birth: Taiwan is absolutely a strong potential market

Male/Female:

for cycling tourism because of the successful industry of bicycle manufacturing and the country has a big variety of nature and culture

Phone:

to offer. The Taiwan Tourism Bureau is now

promoting

healthy and environmentally friendly travel by bicycle called “green travel” in order to revive the inbound tourism market and bring tourism consumption back to all parts of island as well. As a result, the service of doing cycling

E-mail:

tourism provided for cyclists and tourists will be the most basic and important medium to influence their decision-making on choosing to do it or not.

Membership No.:

Password:

Submit

Free Version

Membership There are two types of membership. Free membership: People do not need to pay any but just use the basic service. Paid Membership: People need to pay around NT. 200 dollars (USD. $6.6, GBP. £4.2) to get a service package. In the package, There are one membership card with membership number and information which can be used to use the entire cycling service and have some discounts in the selected shops, restaurants and hotels, a foldable water bottle, mini bike equipment, and a passport which can be used to understand the culture of Taiwan and collect the stamps of each tourist spot to memorise the tourism experiences.

Signature

Membership No.

ictw55068833

ICT W

C YC L

Password

pw1234566789 www.ictwcycletaiwan.com.tw

From Oversease +886 2 25336588

E TA I

WA N

Passport A passport what can be used by tourists to understand the culture of Taiwan and collect the stamps of each tourist spot to memorise the tourism experiences.

Cultures ICTW

PASSPORT čˇ

ç&#x2026;§

Mini bike Equipment There is a mini bike equipment that people can use to fix their bikes in case they need the tools urgently.

User journey

The user journey is shown as following:

Testing and feedback on Rough Prototype

After the ideas had been visualised, The rough prototype had been made to test the ideas out to see if there was any needed to be improved. The ideas might be challenged at this part, but the improvement from the testing would make the project be more appropriate. Smart Phone App Testing

Last Name:

Birth:

Male/Female:

Route Plan

Bike Rental

Transportantion

Parking

Tour

GPS

Near By

Rest & Stay

Safety

Phone:

Address:

Featured

Plan Routes

Offline maps

My Routes

Setting

Featured

Plan Routes

Offline maps

My Routes

Setting

Featured

Plan Routes

Offline maps

My Routes

Setting

Passport Testing

4.4 Revision and Improvement

After the first testing of rough prototype, there were some adjustments needed to be done.

1. The bag of the service package shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be too big. It would be better if the bag can be carried by the bicycle rather then carried by cyclists. 2. No Guide Book. Just to focus on the Passport. Trying to make the whole service pack more succinct that would be easy to carry to go while cycling. 3. According to the result of co-design, the option of a foldable water bottle would be consider to be added into the service pack. 4. Thought about audio GPS map option to the smartphone application. 5. Needed a strong branding to make the service be realisable and memorable.

4.5 Branding

The Branding of this service is part of the design solution. A successful brand identity and brand strategy would make the whole idea be more stood out. The idea of the service branding was to show the enjoyment, passionate feeling of doing cycling tourism and the main features of Taiwan.

Brand Mission

The missions of the branding were first to attract the attention of users and further enhance the interests of them to use the service. It is inspiring and memorable for users to have different ways to experience cycling tourism in Taiwan.

ICTW Cycle Taiwan

The service will be named “ICTW Cycle Taiwan” and the full meaning of “ICTW” is “Innovative cycling tourism of Taiwan”. Taking the initial name to be “ICTW ” to short the name down and make it be more memorable. There is also a metaphor of the name “ICTW”. It sounds like “I SEE TAIWAN” as well.

Brand Value Imaginative Inspiring Memorable Fun & Passionate 60

Cultural Sensitivity & Unique

Brand development

The development of the branding could be seen in figure 4.7

ICTT

Innovation Cycling Tourism of Taiwan

ICTW

Cycle Taiwan: Innovative Cycling Tourism

ICTW ICTW

CYCLE TAIWAN

ICTW ICTW

CYCLE TAIWAN

Figure 4.7 Logo Development

CI Images

The development of the branding could be seen in figure 4.8

Figure 4.8 CI Image Development

5.0 Design Outcome

Outcome 5.1 The Service

5.2 Service Package

5.3 User Journey

5.1 The service

A toolkit of â&#x20AC;&#x153;ICTW Cycle Taiwanâ&#x20AC;? and online service platform created to inspire cyclists and tourist for different purposes and memorable experiences of doing cycling tourism in Taiwan. The toolkit provides a number of tools and prompts that encourage users to try different cycling routes and create their own memorable cycling tourism and further share those experiences with other. The online platform allows users to find the correct and requisite information and learn from the experiences. People will be able to explore more in different ways and discover their own personal understanding about the places they are visiting. (See Figure 5.1)

Figure5.1 ICTW Cycle Taiwan Service Toolkit

5.2 Service Package

The whole service pack will be included a smart phone application, website, Membership card, a passport, a foldable water bottle, and a mini bike equipment. (See figure 5.2)

Figure 5.2 Whole Service Pack

Smart Phone Application

A smart phone application allows users find the cycling information correctly and efficiently, and create their own cycling experiences.

Smart Phone Application

The detailed of the framework for the application can be seen in Appendix 5.

See Appendix 5. for the framework

Website

The framework of the website will be similar as the one for smart phone application shown in Appendix 5 as well.

http://www.ictwcycletaiwan.com.tw

ICTW

CYCLE TAIWAN

Enter www.ictwcycletaiwan.com.tw

From Oversease +886 2 25336588

ICTW

CYCLE TAIWAN

HOME

Route Plans

Bike Rental & Retail

Nearby

Transportantion

GPS & Maps

Tour

Parking

Rest & Stay

Safety

ICTW Cycle Taiwan The economic role of cycling is increasing and also growing within the tourism sector. Cycling gives people a healthy opportunity to train or simply enjoy the time with their family or friends. There is a good number of people riding bicycles around the world. It is not just fun, but also healthy. Moreover, it is an environmentally friendly mode of transport. Taiwan is a potentially strong market for cycle tourism because of the successful industry of bicycle manufacturing and also due to is climate, rich cultural history and natural beauty. The Taiwan Tourism Bureau is now promoting healthy and environmentally friendly travel by bicycle called â&#x20AC;&#x153;green travelâ&#x20AC;? in order to revive the inbound tourism market and to bring tourism consumption back to all parts of the island as well. As part of the overall strategy, the service suggested here could become a strong ally. As a result, the offer of a cycle tourism service could potentially be a key factor in influencing a visitor's decision on how they travel around Taiwan.

Membership

A membership card for the permanent member to use either for logging into their account or to use this as a VIP card having some discounts with selected shops and places.

ICT W Si gn at ur

ICT W M em be rs

hi p No.

ic tw 55 06

88 33

Pa ss wo rd

pw 12 34 ww w. ict

56 67 89

wc yc let aiw

an .co m.

Fro m Ov

ers ea se

+8 86 2 25

33 65 88

Passport

A passport designed for cyclists or tourist to collect for the stamps of tourism spots. In the passport, users can also find the information on different places that are catalogued. With the passport, users are allowing to find the information on different visiting places to explore Taiwan more and learn more from their experience.

Mini bike Equipment

The equipment can be used when thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s some emergent needs of their bikes.

Foldable Water Bottle

The water bottle provided with the ICTW Toolkit, which is foldable for users to carry with them while they are doing cycling. The bottle can be always refilled, which is very convenient for the cyclists.

5.3 User Journey

The Storyboard of Using the Service Pre-Service Period

ONLINE WEBSITE

The sport of cycling is a fast growing as well as tourism of cycle the tourism industry. Cycling gives people the opportun ity to train or simply ride with to their friends. There spouses or are a good number of people riding bicycles around the world. It's not just fun, but Even more, also healthy. it gives us non-pollu ted environm a ent.

BROCHURE

industry. or friends. of the tourism spouses tourism The sport but of cycling as cycle withistheir just fun, a fast to ride as well Cycling gives growing It's not as well as cycle growing people or simply the world. the opportunity tourism of the is a fast ity to trainThere are around tourism industry. to train or simply a goodent. of cycling the opportun number of people to ride with their riding bicycles also healthy. environm The sport riding bicycles Even more, of people non-polluted gives people around the world. spouses or friends. it gives us a number Cycling us a non-polluted It's not just fun, a good it gives environment. but There are Even more, also healthy.

POSTERS

SHARING

Service Journey Period Where can see how the service works for the users.

ONLINE / CALL

INFORMATION

DELIEVERY

COLLECT

CHECKING / REGISTERING

SEARCHING

CYCLING / ROUTES GPS

EXPLORING

CHECKING INFORMATION

COLLECTING STAMPE

CYCLING

REPAIRING

END OF JOURNEY

CYCLING BACK

RECORDING

SHARING

Post-Service Period What the users will get after experiencing the service. ICT W

Signa ture

ICTW Memb ership

No.

ictw5 5068

833

Password

pw12 3456 www.ic twcycl

6789

etaiwa n.com.

From Overse

ase +886

2 253365

MEMBERSHIP

PASSPORT

ICTW TOOLKIT

74 SHARING

REPAIRING

CYCLING / ROUTES GPS

COLLECT

Using tool to explore Taiwan. The online platform supplies cycling information to inspire people. Passport allows people create personal memorable experience while cycling in Taiwan.

RECORDING / LEARNING

CYCLING

EXPLORING

DELIEVERY

Experiences

END OF JOURNEY

COLLECTING STAMPE

SEARCHING

INFORMATION

Can be done while cycling. For inspiration and fun. Sustainable Service.

CYCLING BACK

CHECKING INFORMATION

CHECKING / REGISTERING

ONLINE / CALL

Service Period

Serviced Period

Expectation

Information Search on official tourism website. e.g. Taiwan.Net.tw. Cycling blogs.

Past Experiences

Free Joining trough website. Cyclists or Tourists’ Sharing as a link.

Social Media

ICTW Cycle Taiwan: Inspired and fun service to use while doing cycling tourism in Taiwan. Travel Sharing Hub. Cycle Sharing Club. Friend’s Sharing and Presenting.

Word- of-Mouth

Posters and Brochures at Information Centers, Hotels and Tourist Spots.Online Banner on the Website.

Advertisement / Public Relations

Pre-Serviced Period

Satisfaction of the service. Unique cycling experiences recorded and shared,discovery of destination with tools.

Evaluation

Designed Layout for Travel Memorising and Sharing / Discoveries and Exploration Tools.

Unique Experience Stories /

Social Media

Experience of using ICTW toolkit. Online sharing to keep the using of the service. ICTW is inspired and sustainable for cycling tourism of Taiwan.

Word-of-Mouth

Stamp Collection of Each Tourism Spots for Memorising the experiences / Goods after Purchase / Permanent and Free Membership.Online Platform to Share and Store Experiences.

Customer Relationship Management

Psot-Serviced Period

6.0 Prototype

Prototyping 6.1 Testing

6.2 Feedback

6.1 Testing

Once the design had been done, the prototype should be tested by the user as well to see if there any further improvement for the project. At this part with the final design, the feedbacks from the users would be more accurate because of their participating for the final outcome. The opinions and feedbacks gained from here could be important part to reflect on the final conclusion for the project in the end.

Figure 6.1 Testing 1.

* There is a space on the top of the bag for putting a smart phone, which is very easy to see and use the phone while cycling.

6.2 Feedback I really like this new service. The design of ICTW package is very elegant and neat and very suitable to have one when doing cycling. I especially like the idea on collecting stamps of different tourism spots that allows me to experience more different places. The other thing I like of the service is that you can easily find what’s recently near you while you are cycling. It will be very convenient if it really works out that allows me to find the places or shops where I want to do efficiently.

Test One

The ICTW is a very convenient service that I have tried so far for the cycling tourism. As a cycling tourist, I am always thinking about where to get the right information in the routes that I really want to go to explore Taiwan. I like the service in the way that inspires me a lot to try different areas and different purpose for cycling. And, I can always create my own interest cycling routes is definitely what I will like to try. At the same time with the passport design, the stamp collecting of different tourism spots allows me to remember most of the places that I have been to and really learn from my experience. After the journey, I can even have something to share with my friends to the places that I have cycled to.

Test Two

I am very impressed on the audio GPS map of the smart phone app. The way I do cycling is always to have a map with me and check on the right routes. Sometimes it was very inconvenient that you to stop first while I am during the cycling journey in order to find the right direction. I like the idea of having an audio GPS map what could just “TELL” me where to go just like you are driving a car. And, the bag what provides by the service is very need and just perfectly fits the entire service idea. Even though I have to pay for it, but I think the price of purchase this entire service is very reasonable.

Test Three 78

7.0 Project Conclusions

More 7.1 Evaluation

7.2 Further Development

7.1 Evaluation

The outcome of this project is to be a type of sustainable and innovate service that supplies the cyclists a way to solve their problems and satisfy the demands of having cycling tourism on Taiwan. The strength of this new service lies on the way it integrates the most of cycling information in Taiwan that demanded by current cyclists and tourists as well as on the way it inspires and challenges people to experience places and cultures more than just looking at them. Without be a person always concern about where to find the cycling routes or relevant information, the project allows people to CREATE their own cycling experiences and enjoy in their trips. The aim of the project is to enhance the willing of people to do cycling or cycling tourism to experience Taiwan more, especially to experience the places that they never thought to visit. The prompts of this project do succeed in asking people to start thinking about their travel experiences and surroundings. Furthermore, the service takes the participants to explore more about Taiwan whether on doing culture experience, nature enjoyment, sport training or joining cycling events. The service tool is easy for any people to use and operate that would engage more visitors to choose cycling tourism as the main mode for their visiting of Taiwan.

The only concern that might influence the outcome of this project is the payment of being permanent member. People might concern about if it really worth for them to purchase this service. There was a consideration before for making a paid membership. However, it had

been solved by providing a free membership at the same time as well. Making the design for the package to be more elegant would also enhance the willing for people to purchase one. People will have the chance to try the free membership with limited service first to further make their decision. If anything, convenience of getting the ICTW toolkit should be the smallest concern. The project at the beginning tended to ask people to get it by walking into to tourism information centers in Taiwan. Sometimes, it is difficult for people to find one tourism information center before they start planning on their journey. The solution for this concern is to provide an online ordering and directly deliver it to people. In the way, the project gains more affirmative for the outcome. From the testing of this service design that had been done previously in this project, the outcome is positive and seems to have chance to developed realistically in Taiwan. The service can to be developed by both the project managers and stakeholders and operated by the government or Tourism Bureau of Taiwan. Cyclists and travellers will have a better service environment for cycling tourism. The service can be run by organisations or bodies in any economic sector, but it should definitely be all stakeholders in its management to involve. In the future, Taiwan might not only is one of the biggest countries for bicycle manufacturing, but also has the opportunity to become the first kingdom of cycling tourism.

7.2 Further Development

Since the outcome of this project is fairly positive, there still remains great potential for this project to be further developed. The opportunity for further developing the project would be take this design outcome of the service back to Taiwan test again in the really island of Taiwan. Talking to more experts and involve more stakeholders to be consulted by them in order to know the opportunity and possibility of the project. I would also like to have a talk with the director of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau again since he has been involved to this project at the beginning who provides me some professional knowledge of current cycling tourism in Taiwan. This report will be distributed to interest different parties of cycling in Taiwan with the potential of providing a better service for Taiwan cycling tourism and further increasing the market of it to gather more professional information to further develop it.

8.0 Supporting Materials

References Bibliography

Appendices

Bibliography Worldwide Why Cycling is the Greatest Sport in the World, 2008. Available on World Wide Web at http://johnkcoyle.com/2011/08/05/why-cycling-is-the-greatestsport-in-the-world/ The things you see when cycling around London, 2012. Available on World Wide Web at http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100114535/thethings-you-see-when-cycling-around-london/ london independent bike shop, 2012. Available on World Wide Web at http://woodysbikegoodies.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/londonindependant-bike-shop-check-1-fitzrovia-bicycles/ Inspiring Comb Giant Bike Rack, 2012. Available on World Wide Web at http://homedesignews.com/ideas/inspiring-comb-giant-bike-rack My parking zone integrates solar panels to charge your gadgets, 2007. Available on World Wide Web at http://www.designbuzz.com/entry/my-parking-zone-integratessolar-panels-to-charge-your-gadgets/ Dutch Bike Parking: Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Never Ever Enough, 2012. Available on World Wide Web at http://www.bakfiets-en-meer.nl/category/bicycle-parking-storage/ London Cycling Campaign, 2012. Available on World Wide Web at http://lcc.org.uk/ Chris Cooper and C Michael Hall (2008). Contemporary, Tourism, International Approach. First Editioin. Butterworth-Heinemann.

Taiwan 交通部東部自行車入口網, 2006. Available on World Wide Web at http://motcbike.iot.gov.tw/ 台灣特色活動:燈會美食+首屆自行車節, 2010. Available on World Wide Web at http://www.xfastest.com/thread-52470-1-1.html 美麗寶島介紹, 2012. Available on World Wide Web at http://www.f-t-t-a.org/sdp/658667/3/cp4915421/0/%E7%BE%8E%E9%BA%97%E5%AF%B6%E5%B3 %B6%E4%BB%8B%E7%B4%B9.html 單車遊台灣 5特色路線拚觀光, 2012. Available on World Wide Web at http://blog.yam.com/awe0204/article/17295189 用手騎車身障車隊挑戰極限, 2010. Available on World Wide Web at http://rocfsci.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/blog-post_26.html Cycling Tourism, 1999. Available on World Wide Web at http://www.sustrans.org.uk/assets/files/Info%20sheets/ff28.pdf Bicycle Tourism, 2009. Available on World Wide Web at http://www.docstoc.com/docs/28699933/Hsin-Wen-Bicycletourism-paper# Cycle in Taiwan, 2010. Available on World Wide Web at http://www.formosatravel.net/top-stories/6-top-stories/114cycle-in-taiwan.html 85

Appendices Appendix 1.

Online Survey: A questionary created online for people to answer. Rationale Preliminary to understand the reasons of people cycling in Taiwan, their planning for cycling and their demands of current cycling environment of Taiwan. Basically understand their perspectives of cycling in Taiwan from this survey. The survey was primarily sent to an audience aged between 20~32 years old who live in Taiwan. Questions for Cyclists in Taiwan: 1. Name 2. How old are you? 3. • Male • Female 4. Do you cycle? (If yes, please continue to answer the question 5.) (If no, please skip to question 26.) 5. How often do you cycle? • Everyday • 3~5 a week • 1~2 a week • 2~4 a month • Less than twice a month 6. How long is your cycling experience? • Less than a year • 1~2 years • 3~6 years • 7~10 years • 11~15 years • 16~20 years • More then 20 years 7. Why do you cycle? / What is your purpose on doing cycling? (Any specific reasons?) • For Exercise • For Leisure • For Tourism • Other: 8. If you do cycling tourism, what do you expect to experience? • Cultures • Foods • Nature & Ecology • Arts • Special Events 9. How do you do it? / Do you go to planned cycling areas or cycling routes in Taiwan? • Plan it by yourself • Follow the information you find • Join the tours 10. How do you usually find the information about cycling tourism in Taiwan? • Books/Magazines • eBooks • Website • Smartphone Apps • Tourism Center • Other: 11. Do you feel satisfied on the information you get for doing cycling tourism? 86

(Think about the materials/Source you can use and the information you can find to meet your demand.) 12. Where do you usually go to cycle? 13. Do you have your own bicycle? (If yes, please continue to answer question 14.) (If no, please skip to question 19.) 14. Do you ever need to transfer your bike? (If yes, please continue to answer question 15.) (If no, please skip to question 19.) 15. How do you usually transfer your bike? 16. Have you ever met any problem when you need to transfer your own bike by public transportation? If yes, what is it? 17. How do you store your bike? 18. Have you ever worried about the security of the storing? 19. How do you get a bike to do cycling if you don’t have one? • Hire from rental shop • Hire from “City Bike Rental System” • Borrow from the friends • Other: 20. Do you ever ride on general road? (If yes, please continue to answer question 21.) (If no, please skip to question 22.) 21. Is there any problem you’ve met or seen when you ride on general road? 22. Where or how do you park the bike and find the space to park the bike? 23. Do you have any problem on finding a space for parking bike? What’s the problem? 24. Have you ever worried about the security of the parking? 25. How do you think/feel about your cycling experience in Taiwan? Cycling Environment (Both on Planned Areas and General Road): Convenience: Safety: 26. Do you have any specific suggestion or demand for cycling in Taiwan? 27. Why you don’t cycle in Taiwan? (Please write down your reason.)

Responses: A Sample of 12 responses wes gathered from this survey. Samples 1. 1. Name : Chih-Hung, Wu 2. How old are you? : 22 3. Male 4. Do you cycle? Yes 5. How often do you cycle? 3~5 a week 6. How long is your cycling experience? 7~10 years 7. Why do you cycle? / What is your purpose on doing cycling? For Exercise 8. If you do cycling tourism, what do you expect to experience? Special Events 9. How do you do it? / Do you go to planned cycling areas or cycling routes in Taiwan? Plan it by yourself 10. How do you usually find the information about cycling tourism in Taiwan? Books/Magazines, Website 11. Do you feel satisfied on the information you get for doing cycling tourism? Yes 12. Where do you usually go to cycle? Taichung City 13. Do you have your own bicycle? Yes (If yes, please continue to answer question 14.) 14. Do you ever need to transfer your bike? No (If no, please skip to question 19.)

19. How do you get a bike to do cycling if you don’t have one? Borrow from the friends 20. Do you ever ride on general road? Yes (If yes, please continue to answer question 21.) 21. Is there any problem you’ve met or seen when you ride on general road? Yes 22. Where or how do you park the bike and find the space to park the bike? I usually park the bike beside the road or street. 23. Do you have any problem on finding a space for parking bike? Yes What’s the problem? I always concern about the security problem. 24. Have you ever worried about the security of the parking? Yes Why? Nowhere is safe in the “city”. Samples 2. 1. Name : Stephy Wang 2. How old are you? : 23 3. Female 4. Do you cycle? No (If no, please skip to question 26.) 26. Do you have any specific suggestion or demand for cycling in Taiwan? Devising the package tour or service for people who are interested in cycling and even attract more people to do it. 27. Why you don’t cycle in Taiwan? (Please write down your reason.) The weather in Taiwan is to hot.

Appendix 2.

General Cyclists Interview Rationale: Talking to cyclists face to face to gather the information about their cycling experience directly. From the interviewing the opinions were gained by the first hand. The interview helped to understand what people would think and talk about with the first reflection when they thought about cycling and cycling tourism in Taiwan. Questions for Cyclists in Taiwan: 1. How do feel about cycling in Taiwan? 2. Is there any specific reason or purpose for you to cycle? 3. How do you think the safety about cycling Taiwan? 4. Do you have your own bike or how do you think about the bike rentals in Taiwan? 5. If you are planning to do a journey of cycling tourism in Taiwan, what will be the most important thing for you to looking up the information? 6. If thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s any information about cycling that you would like to look up, how do you think the availability of finding them? 7. How do you think about the public transportation for transporting a bike in Taiwan? 8. Do you have any concern about the cycling safety and the security of bike parking? Responses: A Sample of 5 responses was gathered from this interviewing.

Sample 1 Kobby Weng, 31 years old How do feel about cycling in Taiwan? I like to cycle in Taiwan especially to the areas or the routes that have been planned for people having cycling activities. Those places have been planned very well for cyclists to enjoy in their trip. The general roads are really not suitable for people to cycle. It is too dangerous especially in the big and busy cities. The rules of cycling on general road should definitely to be clarifid more to encourage people use a bike as a mode of transportation. Is there any specific reason or purpose for you to cycle? I do cycling because I do it as an exercise mostly. The other reason of doing it is because that some of the cycling routes in Taiwan always taking me to different tourism spots to explore more about Taiwan. I like to experience new things and that’s why I keep cycling in Taiwan. How do you think the safety about cycling Taiwan? As I stated before, the planned routes for cycling are very “OK”. But, to the general roads? Then, you have to really consider about it. Do you have your own bike or how do you think about the bike rentals in Taiwan? I have my own bike. Sometimes, I ride on it just directly to the destination where I want to go. But when the cycling journey is long distance, I will try to take MRT first to shorten the distance. The problem I would say to the MRT to transporting bikes is the limited time available of it to allow people take their own bikes to get on the train. It’s quite inconvenient that you have to always look up the information on available time and available trains. Once you miss it, you have to cycle all the way back to your home. 91

If you are planning to do a journey of cycling tourism in Taiwan, what will be the most important thing for you to looking up the information? The route information, of course. I always think about where else I can or I should try to cycle to. If thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s any information about cycling that you would like to look up, how do you think the availability of finding them? The information is quite a lot on the website, but you need to find it separately in different website for different information. A lot of cyclists are sharing their cycling experience in their blogs and that is how I usually find the information I want. How do you think about the public transportation for transporting a bike in Taiwan? Not good at all as what I said before. Our government should really put some efforts on it. Do you have any concern about the security of bike parking? Yes, It is kind of hard to find a good parking space for the bike. Well, excepting the planned cycling areas and routes of course. But, I think most of cyclists are worried about it while they are on cycling journey. Maybe there is a way for finding the right spaces to park?!

Samples 2 Jean Tsai, 30 years old How do feel about cycling in Taiwan? It is ok, but I usually go to the planned cycling routes though. Is there any specific reason or purpose for you to cycle? I like to cycle because I use it as a travel mode to hang out with my friends. We can go cycling to a lot of cultural sites or natural spots that is very nice for us to go out from the busy cities as well. How do you think the safety about cycling Taiwan? I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know about the countryside but I would say that do not ride on the general roads if it is not necessary especially in a big city. You need to be really careful on the traffic. Do you have your own bike or how do you think about the bike rentals in Taiwan? I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have one and usually just hire one for the rental. The bike rentals in Taiwan are quite a lot especially around the tourism spots. You just need to look up for if first to know the exact location and the availability of the bikes first. If you are planning to do a journey of cycling tourism in Taiwan, what will be the most important thing for you to looking up the information? Maybe is the purpose of doing it. As I said before, I hope I am not just cycling but to really experience something such as for cultures or for foods. It will make the cycling more fun and I can explore Taiwan more as well.

If thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s any information about cycling that you would like to look up, how do you think the availability of finding them? I will use the sharing blogs of cyclists. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always a lot of information and personal sharing experience that I can have some references. Sometimes, I feel information is too much for me because they are all separated. The only official cycling tourism site only provided by our government only provides the cycling information to east part of Taiwan. I mean, why?! How do you think about the public transportation for transporting a bike in Taiwan? I usually hire a bike to go on cycling tourism, so barely use them.put some efforts on it. Do you have any concern about the security of bike parking? Yes, parking is always the problem for me especially when I hire one that dose not belong to me. I need to be really careful on it.

Appendix 3.

Expert Interview Rationale The interview to the experts is to getting more professional information and knowledge for the cycling. According to their understanding, the solutions for the project would be more accurate. Questions for Cyclists in Taiwan: 1 How do feel about cycling in Taiwan? 2. Is there any specific reason or purpose for you to cycle? 3. How do you think the safety about cycling Taiwan? 4. Do you have your own bike or how do you think about the bike rentals in Taiwan? 5. If you are planning to do a journey of cycling tourism in Taiwan, what will be the most important thing for you to looking up the information? 6. If thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s any information about cycling that you would like to look up, how do you think the availability of finding them? 7. How do you think about the public transportation for transporting a bike in Taiwan? 8. DO you have any concern about the cycling safety and the security of bike parking? 9. Will you concern about the hygiene while you are cycling, such as sweating a lot? 10. Will you consider about the repairing for the bike once you decide to go on a long distance trip? 11. Is there any specific thing you will think about every time you do the cycling tourism? 12. If there is one thing for you to do or improve more for the cycling tourism of Taiwan, what will you like to give some efforts? Responses: A Sample of 3 responses was gathered from this interviewing. 95

Samples 1 Yung-Chih Li, the instructor of the “Friends Bike Club of Taiwan” and a professional cyclist, 30 years old How do feel about cycling in Taiwan? Taiwan is actually quite suitable for people cycling. The weather, the environment and the cultures are all very suitable for people to have a cycling tourism to explore those more. I like cycling because it allows be to visit somewhere that a car wouldn’t be able to take me to. Is there any specific reason or purpose for you to cycle? Just like what I said, it allows me to visit more places. How do you think the safety about cycling Taiwan? Depending on where you go. If you cycle in the big city then you should definitely consider about it and look up for the cycling rules. But, if you are cycling to the countryside, then it should be a problem. Do you have your own bike or how do you think about the bike rentals in Taiwan? I have my own bike and I ride it a lot even though it is going to be a long trip. If you are planning to do a journey of cycling tourism in Taiwan, what will be the most important thing for you to looking up the information? I would say is about cycling events. I like to join cycling events because it allows me to meet more people who have the same interests as you. You can get more relevant information from them and further share yours. We have our own cycling club as you know, so getting more chance to meet more people is very important for us. From the interaction, we can gather more knowledge and information to inspire us on planning cycling tourism. Good events also engage more people to cycle. If there’s any information about cycling that you would like to look up, how do you think the availability of finding them? There is quite a lot of information on the website also from people sharing. If you have time to browse and search each of them, you will gain a lot. 96

How do you think about the public transportation for transporting a bike in Taiwan? There are MRT and normal trains allow people to bring their own bikes with them. The problem I could think about is the time limited for those availability. Normal trains are fine, but the MRT became one of the barriers for people to be willing to cycle especially ride on their own bikes. Do you have any concern about the cycling safety and the security of bike parking? It is fine for me. I always bring my own lock and barely leave my bike away while I am on the journey of cycling. Will you concern about the hygiene while you are cycling, such as sweating a lot? Not really. The speed of doing cycling tourism is quite slow that you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sweat a lot. If you do concern about it, there is always places on the road for you to take rest and clean yourself. When you do cycling around the east of Taiwan, you will find a lot of police station allow cyclists to take rest and have so water there. Will you consider about the repairing for the bike once you decide to go on a long distance trip? I bring my equipment most of the time and there is actually a lot of bicycle retails on the road provide repairing service in Taiwan. Is there any specific thing you will think about every time you do the cycling tourism? Finding the routes, maybe. I would like to try more different cycling routes to explore more. If there is one thing for you to do or improve more for the cycling tourism of Taiwan, what will you like to give some efforts? If it is possible, I hope there is some platform that would able to integrated most of the cycling information to help people find the information efficiently.

Additional Questions: Is your club a non-profit organisation? Yes, It is a non-profit organisation. We do this is because of our interests and would like to share our cycling experience more efficiently. We hope more people can be like us to do cycle to really explore Taiwan. How do you engage people to join your club? Personal experience sharing and event holding. We try to plan different kind of cycling event to catch peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention. Having people talk to each other face to face the fastest way to attract people and we hope that the meaning of doing cycling for our members could be more fun and inspired to their lives rather then just doing as an exsercise.

Appendix 4. The Definition for the Factors of Cycling Tourists Decision-Making Income: “People need sufficient disposable income to be able to engage in general tourism or cycling tourism once they have satisfied other basic needs.” (Contemporary Tourism System, P.14, 2009) Time: “There needs to be time available for travel, just as importantly the amount of time available will be a major determinant on how far people can travel and therefore influence their destination choice.” (Contemporary Tourism System, P.14, 2009) Health: Health is the one of important condition that will influence tourists to make their decision on their trip. Poor health, frailty or disability may constrain travel options. Information and Education: tourists and travellers need to have information in order to be able to access the tourism system and reach destinations. Safety and Security: Tourists and cyclists will concern for the perceived level of safety and security which will affect their selection of destinations and transport medium and may even influence the decision as the whether to travel at all. The factors of safety include perceived threat of crime, political instability and health risk. It would be better and helpful if the tourists and travellers understand some of the religious taboo and local laws of the places they decide to travel first.

Traveling Mates: Depending on different types of traveling mates who the tourists will choose to travel with, the requirement of the travel service level will be extremely different. It will also influence their travel decision-making. Accommodation and Transportation: The relative location of where to stay and the convenience of the transportation will be constraining factors for traveller to make their decision. Gender: “Gender may act as a constraint on travel because of fears over personal security or cultural issues regarding the appropriateness of travel for members of certain genders.” (Contemporary Tourism System, P.15, 2009) Culture: “The situation of individuals in different cultures create variations with respects to attitude towards tourism, particularly when temporary movement away from home is associated with what are regarded as non-essential behaviours. The development of a customer culture id therefore arguably one of the essential factors in influencing the growth of tourism.” (Contemporary Tourism System, P.15, 2009)

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Arts Cultures Foods Natural Tourism Spots

Events

Appendix 5.

A Framework of The Application

By Locations Rrecommended Create Own Routes

By Time & Distance By Interests & Destination

By Levels Availability Time Me

City Location Private Rental

Cycling Routes

Arts

Retails

Cultures Bike Rentals

Near By

Free Version Platform

Information

Natural Tourism Spots

Locations

Events

GPS & Maps

Availability

Locations

Transportation

GPS & Maps Pro Version

Foods

Cycling Tours

Online GPS

Time Introduction

Audio Maps

Available Information

Video Preview Parking Areas

Rest & Stay Cycling Safety

OďŹ&#x201E;ine Maps

Understanding & Learning

By Locations

Experiences

By Time & Distance

Personal

By Interests & Destination

Sharing

By Levels Locations Public Availability Private Payment Public Private

Locations Availability

Information

Payment

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For further information & interests of this porject, please contact with Ginny Wu. +44 7593 959076 +886 2 988553559 cutesmile1030@hotmail.com

ICTW

CYCLE TAIWAN