A garden network system for sustainable garden tourism in South Korea

Abstract

Garden tourism has a significant influence on the global tourism trends. This study focuses on private gardens as a major source of garden tourism, with the following goals: 1) investigate problems associated with private garden registration system through interviews with private garden owners; 2) as an alternative to solve the problem associated with the private garden registration system, analyse international garden network cases and derive their implications; and 3) propose the application of a garden network system suitable for the South Korean situation for sustainable garden tourism. We used two methods: field survey and semi-structured interviews, and international case studies. Twelve private garden owners and managers in South Korea were investigated to identify specific challenges when opening to visitors. Garden networks in Europe and Japan were also evaluated to identify solutions to problems. Based on these cases, we propose a method for building a garden network by interconnecting and utilising existing systems, human resources, and organizations in South Korea.