Cultural Tourism In Korea

1. Introduction

It is a common perception that tourism has been growing to become one of the fastest growing industry in the world. According to the recent report of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), “from 1950 to 2005, the international tourism arrivals expanded at an annual rate of 6.5%, growing from 25 million to 806 million travelers. And worldwide arrivals reached 842 million in 2006, representing a 4.6% year on year growth.” 842 million international travelers amount to almost 12 percent of the world 's population, and the number of domestic tourists may well be much larger than that.

What gathers the most attention when it comes to such growth of tourism is cultural tourism, as the states promote cultural tourism

So what exactly is cultural tourism? Cultural tourism is widely considered to be the subset of tourism concerned with a country or region 's culture, specifically the lifestyle of the people in those geographical areas, the history of those people, their art, architecture, religion(s), and other elements that helped shape their way of life. Cultural tourism includes tourism in urban areas, particularly historic or large cities and their cultural facilities such as museums and theatres. It can also include tourism in rural areas showcasing the traditions of indigenous cultural communities (i.e. festivals, rituals), and their values and lifestyle, as well as niches like industrial tourism and creative tourism. The European Association for Tourism and Leisure Education (ATLAS) defines cultural tourism as "the movement of persons to cultural attractions away from their normal place of residence, with the intention to gather new information and experiences to satisfy their cultural needs". These cultural needs can include the solidification of one 's own cultural identity, by observing the exotic

The Importance of Cultural Tourism

After the great depression of the early 1930s, the states began to realize the size and importance of the tourism movement as an economic and social force which impacted substantially on the national and local economy. And people’s growing interest for tourism, especially cultural tourism because of the rising standards of living, increased leisure time and developments in transportation, has become all the more reason for developing cultural tourism. Youell (as cited in Chen, 2008) organized the benefits the states could expect from the economic and cultural aspects of cultural tourism into following points:

 It changes the image or perception of an area: cultural tourism is considered as a ‘green industry’ in 21st century, it does not produce pollutions. For example, government protects their natural tourist spots to attract visiting tourists instead of exploiting it. It builds a good image of a country.

 It creates a national identity: the promotion of tourism in overseas markets with domestic support can cement a nation’s identity. For example, when South Korea held the 2002 FIFA World Cup, it had cohered all Koreans to support this particular event. All the Koreans shared the same goal of winning the