In 1868, the Meiji Restoration began in Japan, and the Japanese began to look toward Europe for ways to "modernize." The Western, capitalist notion of tourism arrived in Taiwan in 1895, when the Japanese took Taiwan from Qing China and made it a colony.
1868 年後日本開始明治維新，以追求歐化時尚為務，而源自西方資本主義的觀光事業，就在 1895 年清廷將台灣割讓給日本後，輾轉經由日本殖民政府之手傳至台灣。