This paper aims to predict the perception of tourism in North Korea including the nation’s perception of risk of tourism in North Korea in the process of having improved inter-Korean relations such as the Inter-Korean Summit and increased inter-Korean exchange and studied the behavior intention of traveling in North Korea in preparation for the time when it becomes possible to travel around North Korea. In fact studies on tourism in North Korea is very limited. It is because the data on the North Korean economy do not include tourism status nor does it provide reliable official data. Studies on the field of tourism in North Korea have been very sporadic. And such trend continued after the tourist attractions in North Korea including Mt. Kumgang and Kaesong were completely closed and researchers have begun to study in recent 1-2 years. Although inter-Korean tourism is a difficult task to fulfill due to increasing uncertainties and North Korea’s nuclear threat discussions on the potential of inter-Korean tourism will be a meaningful study in the long term. In addition tourism in North Korea can contribute not only to the political and socio-economic aspects but also to lay the foundation for inter-Korean exchange and cooperation can be an opportunity to alleviate cultural and mental dissatisfaction of the two Koreas depend by long separation.Since tourists do not experience the exact risk perception and safety conditions before traveling to a new destination perception of risk plays an important role in choosing destinations for traveling. In particular North Korea is a special region that is exposed to historical and political risk factors with South Korea so perception of risk will play an important role in choosing North Korea as a travel destination.Therefore the purpose of this study is to empirically verify how the risk perception of potential tourists affects their decision on traveling to North Korea in the future and to apply the TPB(Theory of Planned Behavior) to empirically examine the structural relationship between perceived risk factors and attitudes toward behavior subjective norms perceived behavioral control and behavioral intentions. Furthermore we will add prior knowledge factors for tourism in North Korea to identify the relationship between attitudes and behavioral intentions. We will further examine whether there are differences among groups in behavioral intentions depending on the degree of awareness of importance of tourism in North Korea in perceptional terms of tourism. In order to achieve the goal of this study we used the quota sampling method to select samples from 17 metropolitan governments. In order to verify the hypothesis presented in this study we verified the structural equation between risk perception on tourism in North Korea prior knowledge and TPB factors and conducted the multi-group analysis of the structural model to identify the moderating effects among groups depending on the degree of awareness of the importance of tourism in North Korea.As a result of the analysis it was found that the perceived risk of tourism in North Korea had a negative(-) effect and prior knowledge and subjective norms had a positive(+) effect on attitude. Secondly the perceived risk of tourism in North Korea had a negative(-) effect on behavioral intention and prior knowledge had a positive(+) effect. Thirdly the attitude subjective norms and perceived behavioral control had positive(+) effects on behavioral intention in the relationship between constructive concepts in the theory of planned behavior. Fourth the perceived risk of tourism in North Korea had a direct effect on attitude and an indirect effect on behavioral intentions and it was shown to have a greater direct impact on attitudes than the indirect effects of behavioral intentions through attitudes. Prior knowledge was found to have both direct and indirect effects on attitudes and behavioral intentions.Fifth it was found that there were moderating effects between prior knowledge and attitudes perceived risk and behavioral intentions prior knowledge and behavioral intentions and subjective norms and behavioral intentions depending on the degree of awareness of the importance of tourism in North Korea. And other moderating effects were dismissed. It is significant that this study has established a risk perception model of tourism in North Korea based on previous studies and investigated the perception of risk of tourism in North Korea from the public. Also the perceived risk factors and the prior knowledge factors of tourism in North Korea empirically verified the relationship between the constructive theory of planned behavior and this study empirically proved that the difference in the degree of awareness of importance in tourism in North Korea has a moderating effect in each relation suggesting the possibility that it can be a meaningful strategy for forming the behavioral intentions of traveling to North Korea. In conclusion this study provides strategic implications that formation of perceived risks and prior knowledge of tourism in North Korea gives a significant effect on intention of traveling to an unfamiliar tourist destination and that it is necessary to actively implement campaigns of improving tourism awareness in North Korea build information systems related to North Korea and tourism develop joint public-private tourism products and establish systematic guidelines.
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