KJC Korea
Journal Central

The purpose of this study is to understand the development process and context of a coincidence experience that provides pleasure and meaning in travel. The in-depth interviews of 11 participants and data were analyzed using grounded theory. As a result, people who experienced coincidence in the trip were either on an impromptu trip without planning or with flexibly changing the schedule, or traveling alone. Participants experienced a coincidence while attempting to be tense and various trial and error at first, as they were placed in a somewhat uncertain environment through improvised travel and traveling alone. The central phenomenon – coincidence - is a form of synchronicity in which multiple events encounter at the same time, or it appears as a seriality in which the same event occurs repeatedly. After experiencing the coincidence, people were wondering if the coincidence was caused by someone's intention and an emotional reactions such as admiration and joy emerged only through the conviction that no specific cause was found, or that it was not the intention of someone, or the result of giving meaning such as memories or moments of growth. This suggests that people were experiencing coincidences in the process of creating uncertain situations through trips, overcoming tensions and anxieties, and challenging themselves. The coincidence provided existential authenticity to travelers, which allowed people to experience a series of happiness.

The purpose of this study is to derive various strategies to revitalize traditional markets experienced by the owners of traditional markets, and to derive the meaning of strategic approaches as tourism destinations for revitalization of traditional markets. Phenomenological research method was applied in the analysis. The results were grouped with the number of 197 semantic units, 24 modified semantic units, nine sub-themes, and four major themes. The major themes include ‘Differences in the perspectives of traditional market owners on the tourism destination', 'Differences in perspectives among traditional market owners on government support policies', 'The dilemma of revitalizing the traditional market and becoming a tourist destination through the establishment of the Youth Mall', 'Making the traditional market a tourist destination through linkage with various tourism resources'. Most of the owners in the traditional market agree on making the traditional market a tourist destination. However, there is no concrete action plan that has been proposed. Therefore, the government needs to look into the feasibility and provide assistance. The findings of our study contributed to the theoretical expansion in regards to tourist destinations. The practical implication includes verifying that the traditional market can be developed as a tourism resource.

This study applied a phenomenological research method to understand the experience of restaurant owners' use of mobile delivery apps. Interviewees were recruited by requesting an open survey through an external survey firm. The in-depth interview was conducted between June 10 and 25, 2019. The researchers conducted in-depth one-on-one interviews with restaurant owners using delivery apps over mobile phones. A total of 12 interviews were conducted until data saturation. After consultation with three experts, the collected data was analyzed, and continued to exchange opinions with experts during the analysis. As a result of the analysis, 124 semantic units, 38 modified semantic units transformed into implicit terms, 14 sub-themes, and four major themes were derived. The four major themes were 'satisfaction with public relations effect and customer reviews', 'pressure arising from fees and self-pays', 'psychological stability and conflict arising from delivery', and 'satisfaction and regret about policies and systems'. These results mean that restaurant owners using mobile delivery apps feel efficient and depend on the delivery apps. However, at the same time, they were experiencing many problems with the delivery apps. Therefore, the government and delivery apps need to solve financial problems such as commissions and self-payments. It is also believed that it is necessary to bridge the event gap between franchises and non-franchises because many non-franchise shop owners expressed their dissatisfaction as the event was held mainly for franchises. The results are differentiated from previous studies conducted mostly on delivery app users. Also, by understanding the nature of the restaurant owners’ experience using the mobile delivery app and clarifying the meaning, it can be used as primary data for research related to restaurant owners and delivery apps. Our findings suggest the policy direction related to the delivery apps.