연구노트: 문화유산관광용 앱에 의한 관광태도 변화 분석

Analysing the Effects of the Smart-phone App in Changing Visitors’ Attitudes toward Cultural Heritage Tourism: An Application of a Quasi-field Experiment Design

This study was conducted to identify whether or not the effects of a smart-phone application called 'Hwaseong Haeng-gung' ('Haeng-gung fortress') could change visitors’ attitudes toward cultural heritage tourism. For this, 46 students were paired according to socio-demographics and were assigned into either control group, or an experiment group, respectively. Attitudes toward cultural heritage tourism were measured before and after their visit to the Hwaseong Haeng-gung site. The control group's attitude of both before and after the visit to the fortress were compared to experiment group's attitude. Both groups attitude was found to be significantly changed from before and after the visit; the experiment group's attitude changes were not significantly different from control group's attitude changes. The current research findings indicate that the 'Hwaseong Haeng-gung' application fails to significantly change visitors' attitudes toward cultual heritage tourism. The implications of this research are discussed for further development in this area.