자연환경 기반 한국 해양생태관광 활성화 방안 고찰을 위한 탐색적 연구: 1) 한국인 관광객 및 서구인 관광객의 환경에 대한 문화적 인식 차이를 중심으로

An Exploratory Study on Revitalisation of Marine Ecotourism in Korea: Cultural Differences in Natural Environment of Korean and Western Tourists Visiting Tourist Attractions in Korea

The study is an exploratory and descriptive research to come up with measures to revitalize the marine ecotourism in Korea. The marine ecotourism can be completed based on tourists commitments to the appreciation of values, beliefs, and norms in the pro-environmental consumption of marine natural environment. It can be supported by the application of the VBN(value-belief-norm) theory, that helps understand which psychological factors in tourists make them motivated to be involved in the marine ecotourism. The study is to verify a hypothesis that tourists pro-environmental consumption differs from their cultures, and perform a survey to see the cultural differences between Korean and Western tourists using some important variables of VBN theory through T-tests. An exploratory and descriptive analysis is performed to suggest a strategy to revitalize the marine ecotourism in Korea in the future. Analysis shows that there are some differences between Korean and Western tourists in some of environment-related important variables of VBN theory. Therefore, it is needed to plan the revitalization strategy of marine ecotourism in Korea, considering the cultural differences of tourists.