Big Data Analysis of Food Tourism under COVID-19 Regulations in Jeonnam, Korea

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to collect and analyze big data related to food tourism in Jeollanam-do. Specifically, this study analyzes what potential tourists consider food tourism in Jeollanam-do under the COVID-19 regulation. It is to analyze the perception about Jeonnam as a destination for food tourism perceived by potential tourists through big data analysis. From big data analysis, this study analyzes why tourists visit Jeollanam-do for food tourism. Method: The big data collected for analysis ranged from January 1 to December 31, 2021 using the Textom and came from the “N” firm, the largest portal site in Korea. Big data was collected from blogs, cafes, and news among various channels owned by the firm using the keyword ‘Jeonnam food tourism’. Two years have been since the first case of COVID-19 infection was reported in Korea on January 20, 2020. Word pairs were selected using the N-gram, which is a number that records the number of consecutive expressions of two words in the data. Key words were visualized using word cloud analysis. Results: First, according to the frequency analysis through text mining, tourists who visit Jeollanam-do perceive Jeollanam-do as a food tourism destination. Second, in the frequency analysis using the N-gram, many words for tourism activities, tourism resources, tourism products, culture, and the like were presented in addition to food tourism in Jeollanam-do. Third, as in the frequency analysis using the N-gram and the result from word cloud, a specific region in Jeollanam-do such as Beopseongpo and a specific food such as kimchi were showed in the top search terms. Conclusion: First, those officials who are charged in public relations and tourism in Jeollanam-do should pre-pare environments to provide unique tourism activities linked to food tourism and should develop various tourism programs in connection with food tourism in Jeollanam-do. Second, it is necessary to provide and promote fascinating programs that can be experienced from visit to Jeonnam, such as cultural tourism activities linked with food tourism and local tourism experiences. Finally, as the capital of food tourism, numerous advertisement and promotions for Jeonnam food and effective food-related festivals and events are necessary.