장애인관광시장에 대한 우리나라 관광업계 인식 및 준비 실태에 관한 연구

Perceptions and Readiness States of Korea Tourism Industry on the Disabled Tourist Market

The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions and readiness states of Korean tourism industry on the disabled tourist market. Because disabled tourist market is invisible, it is needed to explore this market for establishing the social tourism To accomplish the purpose, data was collected from both on- and off-line survey. After getting rid of unusable responses, a total of 369 respondence were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Major findings were the followings. First, respondents perceived that the economic benefits from the disabled tourist market were not big enough, even though the disabled arguably had the right to travel. Generally, there were similar perceptions across different tourist business types. Second, respondents, regardless of types of tourist business, generally felt that all suggested tactics that might contribute for the disabled tourist market expansion were somewhat necessary. Third, tourist businesses in Korea had not put any significant efforts with the disabled tourists in mind. Practical and theoretical implications were discussed with future research directions.