In the history of human development, rivers are often closely related to the  prosperity of a city. Tamsui River is closely related the development of the Greater  Taipei area, which formed by the three major tributaries of Dahanxi, Xindianxi and  Keelung River flows into the Taiwan Strait through the Tamsui District of New Taipei  City. The length of the main stream and the drainage area are the third largest  river in Taiwan, which has spawned the most prosperous part of Northern Taiwan. The  left and right banks of Tamsui River are Bali and Tamsui, respectively. Bali was a  prehistoric ironware site. Tamsui culture was influenced by China, Spain, the  Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Japan, which resulting to many centuries-old  heritages. In the early 21st century, the city government set up museums to  incorporate the ironware site and the cultural heritages on the banks of the Tamsui  River estuary. In addition to the heritage sites, the sunsets, mangrove, and  migratory birds of the Tamsui River are precious, making it as the most important  tourism destinations in the Northern Taiwan.

The city government set up The Shihsanghang Museum and the Tamsui Historical Museums  at the banks of Tamsui in the early twenty-first century to preserve the culturally  estuary assets. Both museums positioned themselves as the ecomuseum at the beginning  of their establishment, but the performance varies. Although good curatorship and  general enhancement of collections are the core functions of the museum, a  visitor-oriented marketing may support the museum sustained. The museum has always  been one of the tourist destinations. In addition to many museums receiving less  public funding than before, the increase of ticket sales has been getting important  for museum operations. The tourism contrast between the left bank and the right bank  of Tamsui Estuary calls the interest of the study. With the Tamsui estuary  historical sites as the research context, this study aims to make recommendations  for the development of estuary culture based on the viewpoint of destination  marketing.

Traditionally, the museum plays the role of collection, exhibition, education and  research. There are three types of the museum. The first is task-oriented museums,  which are mostly public and large-scaled museum run by professional curators. The  major task is to educate people’s specific domain knowledge, and local issues  or the market needs are not the focus. The second is shared museums. The owners of  such museums are amateurs, interested in sharing their exhibits. The museums have no  curating activities and less interactions with local communities or other museums.  The third type is local cultural institutions and ecomuseums which regards  individuals, organizations, communities, and NGOs in the society as virtual  curators. Such museums are dependent upon substantial active voluntary efforts of  the museum and the community which are driven by the local identities and sense of  place (Lin, 2013).

Local cultural institutions explore local humanities, art, history, culture,  folklore, crafts, landscapes, ecology, industrial resources, etc. to interpret local  assets in the most appropriate way through the involvement of local communities and  the promotion of community-spirit building. In addition to enabling the local  communities to explore local histories and identify sense of places, it provides  cultural tourism information for the community and promotes in-depth cultural  tourism (Lin, 2013). The conventional ecomuseum advocates community-centered, local  governments and local people to brainstorm to present local collective memory,  heritage and cultural identity. If the local government is lack of the curators to  manage the museum operations and the community management, it is easy to operate  without performance. Ecomuseum uses the network system of the core museum and the  satellite or quasi-museums through the inter-disciplinary integration and local  participation, the local government provides full-time personnel, equipment and  resources, and the local communities use their personal resources to display the  local collective memory, heritage and cultural identity, and showcase the local  stories, customs, and characteristics, etc. to the visitors. The focus of the  ecomuseum operation is not on the collection itself, but on the collaboration  between the local government and local communities to explore their own stories,  present their own space using local cultural assets in a way that can make local  communities and visitors appreciate. Given the limited resources of the museum, Lin  (2013) suggests that the involvement of enthusiastic stakeholders such as  volunteers, players, associations or NGOs of the interest promotes the operation of  ecomuseum when the ecomuseum is positioned as an amateur museum. The enthusiasm and  interest of the stakeholders promote to explore more related issues about their  collections or cultural assets. Further, the stakeholders have richer stories to  share with the others which helps the collection and display of the museums. Such  sharing boosts the education and research of the museum (Chang, 1996; Lin, 2013).

The local communities and visitors are the audience of the museum. However, the  audience of the museum should not be limited to the audience, the tourists and the  dents near the museum are the audiences to be attracted by the museum (Rivière, 1985). The audience-oriented  approach is in line with the destination marketing (Siano et al., 2010) which guides  the tourism impacts optimization and the maximization of benefits for the ecomuseum  or the place. A destination comprise a core of six As including attractions  (natural, man-made, heritage, and special events), accessibility (entire  transportation system), amenities (accommodation and catering facilities, retailing,  other tourist services), available packages (pre-arranged packages by intermediaries  and principals), activities (all activities available at the destination and what  tourists will do during their visit) , and ancillary services (services used by  tourists such as banks, tele-communications, post, hospitals, etc.) (Buhalis, 2000). A destination can be regarded as  an amalgam of museum collections, facilities and services and experiences provided  by the ecomuseum. Destination marketing devises to meet the unique needs and the  characteristics of the destination coupled with increasing visitation (Buhalis, 2000). Strategic destination marketing  helps enhance the long-tern prosperity of the local people, delight visitors by  maximizing their satisfaction, maximize profitability of local business and maximize  multiplier effects, and optimize tourism impacts by ensuring a sustainable balance  between economic benefits and socio-cultural and environmental costs (Buhalis, 2000). In accordance with the  stakeholders’benefits and the strategic marketing objectives, the performance  of ecomuseum operation improves.

Bali and Tamsui are at the junction of the Guanyin Mountain and the Tamsui  Estuary. The natural landscape is bred by the Tamsui River and Guanyin Mountain,  creating a rich and diverse waterfront and mountain ecosystem. The sunset on  Tamsui estuary and the mangrove reserve have attracted many tourists to stop  by.

1.1. Tamsui

Tamsui is not only the place with the highest cultural asset density in  Taiwan, but also the highest density of museums. In the early 16th century,  Taiwan’s position in China, South Korea, Japan and the Nanyang  Islands was highlighted. It highlighted the important defensive nature of  Tamsui and the frequent exchange of ships at sea, and became an important  base for economic, political and military affairs. Therefore, Tamsui has  become a battleground for the military. In the 17th century, the Spaniards  built Santo Domingo in Tamsui for a shipping supply station. Later the  fortress destroyed, the Dutch then rebuilt it in 1641 and named it Fort  Anthonio. The main structure has been retained to date.

In the 18th century, there were Han Chinese who came from China to Taiwan.  They brought the latest farming techniques and the gods of their hometowns.  They build temples to keep the gods near the pier. For example, the Fuyou  Palace was built in 1782, Yisan Temple was in 1822, and the Longshan Temple  was in 1858. These temples were built by the craftsman from different ethnic  group of China and were accordingly full of diverse cultural features.  Tamsui became a commercial port in the 19th century. Many Westerners came to  Taiwan for business, commission, or missionaries. Western-style  architectures were constructed and decorated at that time. Among them, Hobe  MacKay Hospital from Canada established the MacKay Clinic in 1879 and the  Tamsui Oxford College in 1882. The British government built the Customs  Wharf in 1862, the Tax Bureau in 1858 and the British Consular Residence in  1891. The British businessman Francis Cass established the Oil Warehouse in  1894. In 1895, the Japanese governed Taiwan, bring about many Japanese-style  and Japanese-Western mixed buildings. All these mixture of Chinese,  Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, British, and Canadian reaches a wonderful cultural  exchange in Tamsui.

In 2005, New Taipei City Government (abbreviated as NTPC) amalgamated  thirty-three buildings or constructions, four intangible cultural assets and  one monument to apply for the UNESCO World Heritage registry. NTPC  established Tamsui Heritage Museum and connected it and private heritages to  form a museum alliance to make Tamsui a borderless ecomuseum. The attempt to  connect the public museum with the private heritages is to preserve and  present the natural and artificial ecology of Tamsui and the historical  sites of the port, and to sustain the local culture through the public and  private partnership. Several community development associations and Tamsui  Culture Foundation are actively involved with the museological activities  and in the cultural development and education.

1.2. Bali

The old name of Bali in Ching Dynasty was Shihsanhang Village in which  thirteen traders lived. Bali is at the junction of Guanyin Mountain, Tamsui  estuary, and Taiwan Strait, and is known as the Andesite rock processing  industry. The Shihsanhang cultural relics in Bali is one of the important  archaeological sites in the northern Taiwan from which excavated pottery,  ironwork, tombs and other rich prehistoric relics exists since prehistorical  era. NTPC established the Shihsanhang Museum in 2003 to preserve the  underneath relics. At the time of its setup, the Shihsanhang Museum is  committed to act as an ecomuseum that interacts and develops with the local  community. The city government improved transportation and surrounding  tourism infrastructure that promoted the economic development of the place  through the establishment of the museum. The museum becomes a tourism  landmark of Bali with which is surrounded by the diverse heritage sites,  natural reserves, waterfront landscapes, historical folklore, industrial  culture and public facilities.

1.3. Comparison of Tamsui and Bali

According to the statistics of Tourism and Travel Department, NTPC, the  number of tourists in Tamsui are more than that in Bali. There were 4.5  million tourists visiting Tamsui in 2017 and 0.96 million visiting Tamsui  Historical Museum and there were 3.2 million tourists visiting Bali in 2017  and 0.6 million people visiting the Shihsanhang Museum.

This study uses six as to analyze destination, i.e. attractions,  accessibility, amenities, available package, activities, and ancillary  services (Buhalis, 2000). Regarding  the accessibility and ancillary services, the infrastructure development of  Bali and Tamsui is similar because they are two neighboring districts of New  Taipei City in Taiwan. The quantity and quality of the amenities in Tamsui  is better than those in Bali because there are more third industrial sectors  in Tamsui, and more secondary industrial sectors in Bali. With more  convenient transportation and commercial activities, Tamsui has always been  the most important tourist attraction in the Greater Taipei area.

In addition to the Tamsui Historical Museum, popular tourism spots contain  Fishermans’Wharf, Fuyo Temple, Golden River Bank, Longsan Temple,  Tamsui Old Street, Tamsui Oxford College, Yisan Temple etc. The number of  tourists in Fishermans’Wharf and Golden River Bank are much more than  the number of tourists in Tamsui Historical Museum. The famous scenic zone  in Wazihwei Mangrove Reserve, Bali is called the Left Bank Park. The number  of tourists in the Left Bank Park is five to six times of the number in  Shihsanhang Museum.

The operation of all museums depends on the visitors of the museum. Although  the number of visitors can not directly explain the experience of the  visitors and the quality of the museum, it can still be used as the basis  for the evaluation of the museum. According to the literature (Lin, 2006; Tang, 2012), most of the museum visitors were sporadic  explorers who visited for leisure or recreation. When the visitors choose  Tamsui estuary as a destination for tourism and leisure activities, they may  choose to enter or not to enter the museum. The number of tourists shows  that the tourists choose not to enter the museums. When the tourists do not  enter the museum, the effectiveness of museological education and exhibition  becomes an issue.

Tourism destination can be regarded as a combination of all products, services and  ultimately experiences provided locally Based on the six As framework to analyze the  Tamsui estuary as a tourism destination, Bali and Tamsui are qualified to be a  tourism destination. The earlier sections introduce the attractions in Bali and  Tamsui containing natural attractions and man-made, artificial, purpose built  cultural and tourism assets. The accessibility is no question that the  transportation comprises mass rapid transit (MRT) from Taipei to Tamsui, bicycle  ways along with Tamsui River, and ferries between Bali and Tamsui. The quality and  quantities of amenities and ancillary services in Tamsui are better than those in  Bali.

Concerning the museological activities, the ecomuseum advocates the participation of  local governments and local communities. If the interaction between two parties is  less than expected, it may ruin the spirit of the ecomuseum. Both Shihsanghang  Museum and Tamsui Heritage Museums were directed by the ecomuseum at the beginning,  it is a pity that the Shihsanghang museum operation has returned to the curating  operation which is inclined to a closed system rather than an open system (Lin,  2013). The number of visitors to Shihsanghang museum is decreasing and the  connection with community residents is weakening (Lin, 2012).

To increase the ecomuseological activities, the Tourism and Travel Department of the  New Taipei City Government may connect the cultural tourism resources on both banks  of the Tamsui River and re-embraces the spirit of the ecomuseum. Tamsui estuary has  rich tourism resources on both banks because of Guanyin Mountain and the estuary.  The sunset and mangroves are the most important natural tourism resources, and the  Shihsanhang culture and the Dapenkeng culture originated from the prehistoric era,  and the Tamsui western culture began in the seventeenth century, making the culture  on Tamsui estuary diverse. However, the museums are administered by the Cultural  Affairs Bureau of the NTPC. The tourism affairs are administered by the Tourism and  Travel Department of NTPC. The citizen affairs are handled by the Tamsui District  Office and the Bali District Office, respectively. This study recommends to lower  the governance barriers among the culture, education, and tourism affairs. The  Tourism and Travel Department of NTPC acts as the leader to build an ad-hoc team to  coordinate the ecomuseum of Tamsui Estuary. In addition to inviting official  representatives, the community is necessary to add value for marketing the Tamsui  estuary.

The community members who are sensitive to the local activities available at the  Tamsui estuary can be from the local people or the virtual communities. The  community members may act as the right storytellers to reflect the Tamsui estuary  activities. They have the right skills, influence and creativity to turn their  experiences into attractive stories that reach the museum audience and deliver a  compelling message. For example, the Shihsanhang Museum has presented underwater  archaeological mystery in a virtual reality and augmenting the reality since 2015,  which allows the museum to expand from onshore archaeology to underwater  archaeology. The richness of the exhibits of the museum has been innovated. However,  the numbers of visitors to the museum are decreasing. It is possible that the  innovation is top-down, but it is out of touch with the audience life.

Finally, university social responsibility helps boost the community’s social  innovation activities by mingling the marine culture and Tamsui estuary culture with  the operation of ecomuseum. All the universities and community volunteers jointly  develop the intellectual platform for networking the culture and local development  needs of the Tamsui estuary to jointly promote the richness of marine culture  narratives.