KJC Korea
Journal Central

Drawing upon the four realms of the experience economy of Pine and Gilmore(1998), this study examined the structural relationships between cultural heritage tourists' experiences, their evaluation on the quality of experience, and overall satisfaction. It also explored the mean and path parameter differences between users and non-users of culture tour guides' interpretation service. Results of a structural equation model analysis indicated that the data support the relationships between the three latent factors. Results of latent mean analysis and multi group analysis also showed significant differences in the means and path coefficients of latent variables between the users and non-users of cultural tour guides interpretation service. Implications for cultural heritage marketers were also discussed.

The rationality of tourists' expenditure decision making has been a controversy in the field of tourism and behavioral economics. Using a sample of tourists visiting Jeju island, this study examined whether tourists' expenditure decision making is rational or irrational. Particularly, this study separately examined each of the three different types of the tourists' consumption expenditures: food and beverage, transportation and lodging, and cultural and entertainment. Date were conveniently collected from 150 tourists of Jeju island at a rental car shop on June 2011. In order to test the rationality of the tourists's expenditure, the respondents were asked about their expected and real expenditure on the three different types of expenditure before they rented a car and when they returned the car. Results showed that tourists consumption expenditure decision making could be characterized by both rationality and irrationality. Overall, the tourists were likely to spend their expenditure rationally. However, in terms of the entertainment & shopping items, the respondents were likely to spend their expenditure irrationally.

This study examined the characteristics of Korean gambling industry. It also suggests prevent measures of proliferation of problem gambling in Korea. A critical look at the related literatures suggested that the Korea gambling industry could be characterized as a state-run gambling industry. It also showed that more than 6 varieties of gambling have been licensed in Korea and they are the most diverse kinds of license among OECD member countries. Moreover, many local governments still make an effort to attract gambling industry to their region. Even though problem gambling has been widely regarded as a kind of psychiatric disorder, this study suggests that the traditional perspective on problem gambling is limited in understanding problem gambling. This study also maintains that the macro approach, which focuses on the social structure factor of problem gambling such as poverty, is more appropriate to solve the problem gambling than the micro approaches which focuses on gamblers' micro psychology. Finally, this study proposes that social welfare system for the citizens should be improved to lower the participation rate of problem gambling.

Along with ‘fair trade’, the term of ‘fair travel’ has been frequently used in the field of tourism study. However, to date, there is no globally accepted definition of fair tourism and travel. By examining the previous literatures, this study conceptualized fair travel in terms of its attributes and areas. It also compared the concept of fair travel and tourism with other types of related tourism such as sustainable tourism, green and ecotourism, and welfare tourism. A critical review of related literature suggests that fair travel has three different attributes such as fair relationship between stakeholders, procedural fairness, and fair distribution of profit. It also propose that fair travel has four different areas of fairness: travellers, local residents, ecological environment, and tourism industry. Based on this conceptualization, a model of relationships between the sustainable tourism, responsible tourism, green tourism, and welfare tourism was also provided.

Social media have come into playing indispensible roles in travel planning, social networking, and actual bookings and purchasing of tourism and tourism related products. This study was designed to identify the determinants of the users' commitment to the social media community based on the theoretical framework of Triandis model(1980), which helps researchers understand the structure of information usage behavior in various contexts. The data for this study were derived from an national panel online survey, which was conducted among Bloggers who had taken leisure travels for the last one year prior to the survey. A total of 236 Bloggers, were included in the model test of path analysis. Results showed that affect, social factors and near-term consequences were positively related to commitment. Also, commitment positively affected the intention to continue to use social media for travel information search. However, contrary to our expectation, long-term consequences and facilitating conditions were found to be an insignificant predictor for commitment and intention to continue to use social media. Practical implications and future research direction were also presented.

This study was to identify the long term determinant factors of inbound tourism by airline. It also examined the determinant factors' recursive effects. Using quarterly time series data(1999-2009) of air inbound visitors from China, Japan and USA to Korea, VAR model and consequential impulse response function were tested to examine the relative importance of the determinants and their durability. Contrary to the previous literature, foreign exchange rate was not a significant determinant factor of the demand. In contrast, the income level of China and Japan, which were measured by each country's GDP, significantly and substantially influenced on the demand in the two lag terms. Even tough, all the other macro variables were found to be influential on the demand with three and four lag terms, they were not substantial and disappeared after nine lag terms. Results also showed a significant and substantial variation in the size of coefficients and in the length of durability among the three countries as to the determinants' impacts on tourism demand. These results strongly suggest that idiosyncratic response may be pertinent to the variation of inbound tourism demand.

Voluntourism could provide participants with a new and authentic tourism experience through a reciprocal interaction between local people and tourists. This study analyzed travel characteristics of voluntourism participants and their preference toward domestic voluntourism programs. Using an email survey, data for this study were collected from 142 respondents, who participated in voluntourism programs organized by International Workcamp Organization, Seoul Volunteer Center, and Volunteer 21. The results of this study showed that the respondents were likely to be young(20s) females, and obtained the voluntourism information from neighborhood and a web-site of related organizations. Results also indicated that the respondents were most likely participated in the volunteer activities to conserve the environment and culture. This study also found that the participants of domestic voluntourism programs were more likely to have altruistic motivations than the participants of overseas voluntourism programs. Practical implication and limitation of the study were discussed based on these findings.

By examining the influence of hotel employees' experience of social support on their evaluation of self efficacy and helplessness, this study was to provide strategies to develop preventive measures against the hotel employees' experience of helplessness. Based on a review of related literature, a structural model between the three latent factors was developed. Data collected from 430 employees of the deluxe hotels in Seoul area on June 2010. Results of a structural equation model analysis showed that all the three dimensions of social support(i.e, the emotional support, evaluative support, material support and informative support) turned out to have positive impacts on the hotel employee' level of self efficacy experience. Results also indicated that the emotional support, evaluative support made affirmative effects on the hotel employee's helplessness. Moreover, the self efficacy was found to have affirmative effect on the hotel employee's helplessness. Practical implications and limitation of the study were also discussed.

Based on the theory of planned behavior, this study tested the impact of package travellers' perception of Influenza A(H1N1) on their intention to postpone or cancel international trips. Data were conveniently collected from 570 package travellers, who participated in outbound travel program in Korea from January to February 2010. Results of a structural equation model analysis indicated that overall, the respondents' behavioral intention to postpone or cancel international travel were well explained by their level of perception on the Influenza A Results also showed that the respondents' behavioral intention on international travel was significantly influenced by their attitude and subjective norm on Influenza A. However, perceived behavior control on Influenza A was not found to have an impact on behavioral intention and actual behavior for international travel. Findings from this study suggest that the perception of Influenza is an important variable in explaining decision-making process of international tourists.

The importance of emotion in tourism experiences has been widely discussed in many previous researchers. However, to date, not many study actually investigated the emotion related words that people use when they describe their tourism experiences. This study examined the emotional words that Korean people use when they explain their tourism experiences in three steps. First, from the 434 Korean emotion related words, 125 words were extracted by three researchers. Then, the 125 words were categorized into 61 negative emotional words and 65 positive emotional words based on a survey of 300 respondents. Finally, the most representative 49 emotion related words(25 negative and 24 positive) were selected out of the 125 words. After finalizing the emotional words list, the 49 emotional words were compared with Richins(1997) scale of emotional expression. The 49 emotional words were also classified into three categories according the three phases of a travel.

This study examined the effects of the brand image of a city on the theme of the city. Based on a review of related literature, the hypothetical causal relationship between the city's brand image and theme was developed. Data were collected from 305 participants of COEX convention and exhibition participants who had been abroad within the last 3 years. Results of a factor analysis delineated five factors of city brand image(i.e. historical/cultural image, social/environmental image, active/dynamic image, convenience/ leisure image, and beauty image). It also delineated three factors of the theme of a city(i.e. uniqueness, symbolic, and story-telling). Results of regression analysis showed that among the five city brand images, historical and cultural image. was most likely to be associated with the storytelling theme for the city. Results of this study suggest that if a city develops a historical and cultural image based on long established histories of the city, it will be able to project a theme with full of stories into the memories of visitors.

This study explored the kinds of motor show programs that effect visitors’ overall satisfaction and motor vehicle purchasing intention. The samples for the study were selected from 361 people who visited “2010 Busan International Motor Show”. Five program factors were derived from a factor analysis: ‘performance program’, ‘competition program’, ‘demonstration program’, ‘motor vehicle experience program’, and ‘pavilion program’. Result of a regression analysis indicated that out of those five program participation level, the respondents’ level of participation in the ‘competition program’, ‘demonstration program’, ‘motor vehicle experience program’, and ‘pavilion program’ were found to have significant influences on the overall visitor satisfaction. However, only the level of participation in the ‘motor vehicle experience program’ was found to be significantly associated with the respondents’ intent of purchasing motor vehicles.

This study was to examine relationships among the perceived value, satisfaction and behavioral intention of Jeju package travellers. Questionnaire survey was conducted to domestic tourists departing Jeju island and a total of 334 samples were finally used for the analysis. The result of factor analysis delineated four factors of the perceived value of Jeju package tour product: emotional value, functional-quality value, functional-price value and social value. Results of regression analysis indicated that there was a positive relationship between respondents' evaluation on the perceived value of the product and their level of overall satisfaction. Results also showed that the respondents' perceived value was positively associated with their behavioral intention. More specifically, out of five dimensions of perceived value of the products, functional-quality value most significantly influenced on the visitor satisfaction and behavioral intention. Practical implications and limitation of the study were discussed at the end of this study.

Walking tourism is becoming a popular alternative tourism in Korea. However, only a few studies have examined the relationship between the perceived value and visitor satisfaction in the context of walking tourism. This study was to test the influences tourist destination image and perceived value of walking tourism destinations on visitor satisfaction. Data were collected from 242 visitors who visited Jeju Ole Road and Jirisan Mountain Dule Road, the most two popular walking tourism destination in Korea, on November 2010. Results of a regression analysis showed that out of the three dimensions of the walking tourism destination image(i.e, tourism facility, tourism attraction, and tourism environment), only tourism attraction was found to be significantly related to the visitor satisfaction, even tough all two factors of walking tourism destination perceived value(emotional value and economical value) made significant effects on the tourists' satisfaction. Moreover, results showed that overall the tourism destination image turned out to have an influence on the perceived value. This study also made several theoretical and practical suggestions based on the findings.

Using the gravity model, this study analyzed the Korean people's demand for the Korea national parks. According to the model, demand for a tourism destination from another destination is a function of income (and/or population) of departing destination and the distance between two regions. In other words, GDP and the distance between two regions played the principal roles in the gravity model. Drawing upon the gravity model, this study employed the GRDP(gross regional domestic product) and the distance between major metropolitan cities and the seven Korean national parks as independent variables. The number of national park visitors was considered to be the proxy variable of the demand for the park resources. The panel data, which combined the time series and cross-sectional observation, was composed of 7 national parks and 10 years. The panel cointegrating vectors showed that the number of visitors had negative relationship with the distance, while it was positively associated with the gross regional domestic product and the population of the metropolitan cities. Furthermore, the rolling panel estimation illustrated that the negative influence of distance become bigger while the coefficients of the income and population become smaller.

Temple-stay was selected one of five best cultural tourism products in the world by OECD in 2009. It is also becoming a popular Korean culture tourism experience among foreign visitors as well as Koreans. However, not many studies in the field tourism have examined the temple-stay related experiences. In this context, this study investigated participants' motivations and the level of satisfaction on the temple stay program. Particularly, it compared the differences on the temple-stay motivation and satisfaction between Koreans and foreigners. Based on a review of related literature, participant motivation in this study was measured by ten items and experience satisfaction was operationalized and measured in terms of the condition of facility, the condition of operating, and the program of Temple-stay. Data were collected from 823 Temple-stay participants in eighty seven temples. Overall, results showed significant differences on the participants' motivations and experience satisfaction between Koreans and foreigners. Based on in-depth interviews with temple-stay participants, implications for the revitalization of temple-stay program were also suggested.

Surveying 172 students majoring in airline service at three universities in Choongchung province, this study attempted to delineate the underlying dimensions of Mockup Room Servicescape(MRS) and to compare their perception of the importance of mockup room attributes and their satisfaction level. Factor analysis of 20 attributes identified four dimensions of mockup room attributes such as practice environment, practice facilities, layout, and class facilities. IPA indicated that schools should make every efforts to improve room structure, emergency equipments, diversity of service equipments, in-flight announcement facilities, and diverse types of class seats for passengers. The study concluded with the implications of the results and suggests some future research topics.