بخش بندی با انگیزش در گردشگری روستایی : مطالعه موردی کره

Tourism as a rural growth tool has to adapt to current market mechanisms, which are becoming extremely competitive and which are dominated by communication and promotion strategies and techniques. We need to know the causative factors and influences by which tourists in rural areas are motivated to become included in various market segments. The primary purpose of this study is to segment and profile the motivations of tourists, so as to enable a better understanding of rural tourism in Korea. A self-administered survey in four languages was collected from 252 tourists in the study area. A factor-clustering method identified four distinct segments: family togetherness seeker, passive tourist, want-it-all seeker, and learning and excitement seeker.

Rural communities in Korea are facing serious problems including depopulation, disproportionate aging of the rural population, a reduced labor force, and the Government's open market policy on agriculture. These problems have caused the stagnation of the rural economy, as well as the degradation of the quality of rural life. Just as in many other countries, rural tourism offers opportunities for generating and diversifying revenues for Korean farmers. Since 2000, the Korean tourist's demand for rural tourism facilities has been increasing due to factors such as higher disposable income, a more mature travel market, changing tastes and preferences, and increased leisure time resulting from the introduction of the 5-day work-week system in Korea. This increasing demand, coupled with large Government investment, creates a definite need to study rural tourism and thus to optimize any strategies to utilize these opportunities. Since 2002, the Korean Government has been playing a leading role in the development of rural tourism (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 2002 and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 2006a). The Rural Traditional Theme Village (RTTV) and the Green Rural Experience Village (GREV) are two main projects that have focused on rural tourism development to encourage ‘bottom-up’ development revolving around the development of local cultural resources. The number of tourism villages recognized by Government projects increased rapidly from 27 nominees in 2002 to 98 in 2006 (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 2006b). A total of 279 villages were designated by the Government Program on Rural Tourism Development since its launch in 2002. In 2006, the number of accommodation units available as tourist accommodation, according to the Rural Resources Development Institute (2006), was estimated to be 8500 rooms in 2500 farm-stay households. There are several types of tourist accommodations. Many are known as “rural houses.” These are restored old houses or newly constructed houses that use traditional architecture and materials. There are also wooden houses, former mills, and inns. All this accommodation has several communal rooms and one or more bedrooms. Catering and activities offered add to the confusing diversity of what constitutes rural accommodation. Meal delivery, traditional folklore, and farm-based activities are provided or offered by these establishments. As tourism has been considered as a tool for promoting the development of a number of economically and socially depressed rural areas in Korea, Government-based rural tourism has emerged as one of the main economic activities in most rural areas since 2002. Korean Government agencies have recognized that rural tourism development should be expanded and also be promoted in a sustainable manner. The main driving force behind rural tourism in Korea has been the development of various institutionally supported projects in different areas and regions. Tourism in rural areas accounts for about 10–25% of all forms of tourism activity (EuroBarometer, 1998 as cited in Hall, Mitchell, & Roberts, 2003). However, most Korean tourists in rural areas are excursionists with a 25.8% rate of overnight stays and a 27.3% rate of revisitation (Rural Resources Development Institute, 2006). Effective tourism marketing and management require an understanding of the existing market segments. Identification of a clearly defined market segment permits specifically directed promotion programs. A number of research reports and theoretical essays published over the years have directly or indirectly dealt with tourist motivation, but much of the previous research was focused on the attitudes of locals and residents to tourism development-related issues, rather than tourist behavior and demand in Korea. In this regard, issues such as visitation patterns, visitor behavior, visitor motivation, and benefits sought have largely been overlooked in the current empirical rural tourism literature. Of particular interest is the identification of unique market segments on the basis of the different motivations of tourists in rural areas. So far, demographic and socio-economic characteristics have mainly been used as the basis of segmentation. However, the predictive power of age, gender, and wealth to affect purchasing behavior is markedly situation-dependent, because they are only indirectly related to purchase intentions. Therefore, marketers have increasingly pointed out that the most effective predictor of tourist behavior should be the behavior itself, including benefits and motivations (Goeldner and Ritchie, 2003, Johns and Gyimothy, 2002 and Kotler et al., 2003). In this connection, the profiles of different rural tourism motivational market segments provide detailed information on the niche markets of rural tourism, and the information on these tourists can be used to develop marketing strategies for rural tourism. Tourist motivations have also been studied extensively in the literature (Bansal and Eiselt, 2004, Crompton, 1979, Dann, 1981, Fodness, 1994, Hanqin and Lam, 1999, Iso-Ahola, 1982, Josiam et al., 2004, Kozak, 2002, Nicholson and Pearce, 2001, Oh et al., 1995 and Uysal and Jurowski, 1994). However, few studies have specifically considered motivation in rural tourism, and the resulting segmentation. This study aims to segment and profile the needs of rural tourists, so as to provide a better understanding of rural tourism, by using a cluster market segmentation approach. This study aims at providing tourism marketers with insights into the travel behavior of people living in Korea and helping them in planning appropriate marketing strategies. For researchers, one particular aim of the study is to contribute to the discussion of appropriate market segmentation criteria and the use of multivariate statistical methods in marketing research.

Rural tourism development in Korea is an effective strategy for revitalizing rural communities that have experienced serious structural and economic problems. Rural communities and the Korean Government have recognized the need to revitalize rural communities' economies. In particular, people in Korea are able to have more leisure time, due to the introduction of a 5-day-week work system, and this will affect the development of leisure and tourism behavior. The clustering of rural tourists' motivations proved to be a valuable means of segmenting markets. Since 2002, rural tourism has risen to become one of the main economic activities in the majority of rural areas in Korea. However, this is a quite different result from the experience gained in European and other countries. Whereas rural tourists in European countries tend to be attracted by a peaceful atmosphere and nostalgia for old ways of life, as evidenced by the independent ruralists segment identified by Kastenholz et al. (1999) in Portugal and the relaxers and gazers segments identified by Frochot (2005) from the Scottish perspective, Korean rural tourists are more likely to be interested in the role of agriculture and its associated culture, such as the agricultural experience and rural life (see Table 8). This is so firstly from the demand side, as most Korean parents in urban areas lived previously in rural areas, and want their children to share in agricultural activities in order to gain educational experience. Secondly, the supply side is not well developed for tranquil and calm tourists, because Korean rural tourism in the initial stages was focused on farm-based activities. The results of the factor analysis showed that the six dimensions of motivation among these rural tourists included “relaxation,” “socialization,” “learning,” “family togetherness,” “novelty,” and “excitement.” The “relaxation” dimension had the largest proportion of the total variance, at 26.87%. From this, we conclude that most tourists are strongly motivated by “relaxation,” which serves as the main distinguishing theme for a substantial part of the rural visit. However, mean values indicated that the primary motivation for rural tourists was ‘learning’ (mean value = 3.62), which included exploring new places (3.68), experiencing new and different lifestyles (3.98), learning new things, increasing knowledge (3.42), and traveling to historical heritage sites (3.39). These findings are consistent with previous studies, that cited ‘relaxation’ as the most important motivation for rural tourists (Butler et al., 1998, Embacher, 1993, Kim, 2005, Krippendorf, 1989, Roberts and Hall, 2001, Sharpley and Sharpley, 1997 and Song, 2005). Other prominent dimensions of motivation were “learning,” “excitement,” and “family togetherness.” These findings are thematically similar to those reported in previous research (Butler et al., 1998, Kim, 2005, Roberts and Hall, 2001, Sharpley and Sharpley, 1997 and Song, 2005). The findings suggest that the market can be divided into four segments based on tourists' motivations: “family togetherness,” “passive tourists,” “want-it-all,” and “learning and excitement.” Significant differences in the characteristics of rural tourists were observed. These findings were also thematically similar to the previous research of Kim (2005), which showed a uniquely Korean tourist segmentation. The profiles of these four motivational market segments showed significant differences in socio-economic characteristics, holiday behavior, and activity preferences. ‘Novelty’ seekers, or those in the pursuit of a tranquil atmosphere, common in western countries, were not observed. The majority of rural tourists are ‘family togetherness’ seekers, who comprise 37.0% of the respondents. Those who engage in ‘family togetherness’ and ‘learning and excitement’ earn a higher average income than the ‘passive’ and ‘want-it-all’ rural tourists. The ‘family togetherness’ segment is more likely to prefer artistic hobbies and multi-destinations. They also visit rural tourism villages about 2–3 times a year. Results specific to the Korean rural context show that, whereas rural tourists in western countries tend to be older and seek aesthetically pleasing and tranquil countryside environments (Cavaco, 1995 and Sharpley, 1996), most Korean rural tourists tend to be middle-aged with children and are more likely to prefer agricultural experiences. This is because Korean rural tourists generally consider rural tourism as a means to educate their children, rather than to enjoy the countryside itself. The ‘want-it-all’ segment shows that rural tourists who possess a high school degree or less are more likely to be motivated by all kinds of factors, whereas ‘passive tourists’, who are more educated and earn a higher income, are less motivated. This shows that ‘want-it-all’ rural tourists have strong push motivations. We suggest the development of marketing strategies aimed at ‘want-it-all’ tourists for communities with agricultural activities, and ‘passive tourists’ for communities with abundant natural resources. These results have important implications for governments, rural communities, and private agencies engaged in rural tourism marketing and development. The profiles of rural tourists can be used to develop marketing strategies for rural tourism. In particular, profiles of the different rural tourism motivational market segments provide detailed information on the niche markets for rural tourism. If a local government plans to develop rural tourism with low investment by using rural resources such as outstanding and distinctive natural environments, they can target ‘passive tourists’, who primarily visit rural areas to enjoy rural settings with relatively low expectations from their trips. On the other hand, in regions where natural resources are insufficient to attract tourists, rural tourism can focus on rural activities different from those offered in other areas. Promoters of these regions can target ‘want-it-all’ tourists, whose primary purpose in visiting rural areas is to participate in rural recreation activities. In this case, the results of this study showed that they were more likely to participate in agricultural activities, such as planting and harvesting crops. Rural tourism in Korea is still at an introductory stage, and there is no established definition of rural tourism. Discrepancies in definition may be one reason why results vary considerably across studies. The segmentations proposed in this paper could be helpful in understanding why different people participate in rural tourism. They also provide information (e.g., demographic profile and trip behaviors) which can be used to develop and target niche marketing strategies. Understanding tourists' motivations for participating in rural tourism can ultimately help communities effectively design and market their product lines and experience. Therefore, continuous research on rural tourism is needed, to monitor the changing demands and preferences of rural tourists and to assess present and future marketing strategies. Particularly, the findings presented in this paper may indeed be significant on an international scale, as it is certainly possible that visitors from Europe, USA, and other countries and continents may feel attracted to rural tourism facilities in Korea. One operative factor in this connection is that rural areas in Korea are able to offer a subtle mix of agricultural technology, environmental engineering, historical charm, and popular friendliness which is generally not to be found elsewhere. The strong family ties which bind generations together in Korea are usually not in evidence in many other parts of the world, and accordingly there are many segments of the population in other countries that are undoubtedly amenable to the influence of an adventurous concept. If the latter can be presented on an international scale with the application of a coherent and cogent marketing concept, then it is foreseeable that rural tourism in Korea may become a dominant force in service exports from this country. Lastly, the primary limitations of this study need to be addressed. The study population comprised Korean rural visitors who were over 18 years old. A proportionate sampling method was employed to allocate the number of samples across the country. Though location samples were randomly selected in each region, non-respondent bias and refusal bias were evident in this study, due to the methodology of conducting an on-site survey among rural visitors.