Impacts of Tourist Resorts on the Surrounding Rural Areas and the Perception of Residents - A Case Study of Janghung, Daesungri, and Yongpyong Tourist Resorts

This study analyzes the impacts of tourist resorts on the surrounding rural areas and the perception of residents with Janghung, Daesungri, and Yongpyong tourist resorts as the case study regions. The purpose of this study is, first, to identify the changing modes reflected by the economic, sociocultural, and environmental impacts which are occuring combined by the characteristics of tourist resorts and tourist activities. Second, the evaluation by residents on the regional changes from the tourist activities are analyzed, and then it tis compared by regions and by the extent to which they are involved in tourist industries. And third, this study also illuminates the impacts of tourist resorts generated by the development of them in rural areas by examining the interrelated features of tourist resorts, regional impacts of tourist resort development, and perception of residents on the impacts of tourist resorts. The principal data used in this study are statistical data, on-the-spot survey data, and the results of questionnaires on the residents and tourist establishments. And ANOVA together with X2 test is applied to analyze the perception of residents on the impacts of tourist resorts. The research findings are to be followed. First, the characteristics of tourist resorts showing regional differences are varied in the locational characteristics of tourist resorts caused by the accessibility to large cities in tourist market, in the characteristics of tourist resources caused by the difference in tourist activities, and also in the characteristics of tourist capital by the difference in size and features of tourist industries. Second, impacts of tourist activities which the characteristics of tourist resorts compoundedly exerts in the surrounding regions created regional vatiations in the distribution of tourist establishments, employment size, regional effect of employment and purchasing goods, number of private tourist home, and change of physical landscape. Third, the perception of residents on the impacts of tourist activities revealed a positive response to the improvement of living conditions such as income, employment growth, and investment in infrastructure, while they responded negatively or took a neutral attitude to the other influences. Fourth, the perception of resident groups classified by the extent to which they are involved in tourist industries was more negative in the resident group with no involvement. And the nearer a tourist resort stands to the tourist market of large cities, the more likely is the difference in the perception on the impacts of tourist activities accoring to the extent of involvement