Institute of Transportation, MOTC

       Self-guided tour has become the most popular type of tourism in Taiwan. People prefer to organize their tour by themselves no matter domestic or aboard. Railway system is the backbone of city development. Therefore, some of the countries rolled out the rail pass and achieved huge success. This study examined the relationships among tourists’ perceived benefit, perceived risk, perceived value and purchase intention of railway-oriented transit-pass using the structural equation modeling (SEM). An online survey was conducted via popular websites for tourists in Taiwan. According to the empirical results, the theoretical model was found acceptable and the results support for proposed hypotheses.

         The results indicated that the perceived benefit has positive effect on the perceived value, while the perceived value has positive effect on the purchase intention. However, the perceived risk negatively influenced the perceived value. In other words, the mediating effects of the perceived value between perceived benefit, perceived risk and transit pass purchase intentions are also examined. Furthermore, the perceived benefit positively influenced the purchase intention via the perceived value, and the perceived risk negatively influenced the purchase intention via the perceived value. This study deduces information for railway companies about what are determinants of transit-pass, and what are impacts of tourists’ perception on their purchase intention. This study also suggested marketing strategies and managerial implications from the empirical results.