A Study on the Evaluation of Boryeong Cultural Tourism Festival Between Korean and Foreign Visitors

Abstract

Cultural Tourism Festivals supported by Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism flourish across the nation every year. Especially Boryeong Mud Festival, recognized as one of the best festivals in Korea, is very popular among not only Koreans but also foreigners. However, preceding researches focused mainly on Korean visitors so there are not sufficient information on foreign visitors. This paper aims to analyze characteristics and evaluation between Korean and foreign visitors and contribute to a successful and effective operation and development of various programs and facilities for the festival organizers. From the empirical study of the festival, major characteristic of two groups showed that Korean visitors were mostly made up of people in their 20s and 30s and used cars as a major means of transportation and foreign visitors were mostly English teachers in their 20s residing in Korea and used buses to come to the festival. However, the sheer fact that the majority of foreigners were not directly from abroad showed some limitations of the festival but at the same time it could mean that effective promotion packages and infrastructure need to be designed to bring them more. As a result of factor analysis of festival evaluation items, 'program and product', 'price and tourism', 'convenient facility', and 'kindness of staff' factors were extracted. t-test was conducted to compare the differences between Korean and foreign visitors with the factors. All items showed statistically significant, and foreigners' degrees of satisfaction proved to be higher than those of Koreans. In terms of the order of factor average scores, both 'kind guidance', and 'program and product' factors received highest scores whereas 'convenient facility' factor received lowest scores from both Korean and foreign visitors. What is implied was that both Korean and foreigners expressed satisfaction with 'kind guidance' and 'program and product' factors, but discontent with the 'convenient facility' factor. Therefore this area should be paid much attention and care to improve the conditions. The intention of revisit and recommendation appeared to be relatively high, and 'convenient facility' factor had an impact on the intention of revisit. Likewise, 'program and product' factors were found to influence the intention of recommendation.