Wetland-based tourism in South Korea: who, when, and why

Abstract

We investigated the trends and characteristics of individuals visiting four wetlands in South Korea. A total of 21,647,242 people visited the four wetlands from 2007 to 2012. The number of visitors increased significantly after the tenth Conference of Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands held in South Korea in 2008. Visitor data showed statistical evidence of seasonality in visits, with visitor numbers peaking in autumn of each year in all wetlands, probably because of the seasonality of natural resource availability in wetlands. Our findings are based on a self-administrated questionnaire survey completed by 600 respondents (150 from each wetland). Most respondents visited wetlands for sightseeing (50.94 %) or educational purposes (36.42 %) and remained for less than 2 h. Visits were primarily spent participating in educational and sightseeing programs. Thus, wetland visitor centers have an important role in wetland ecotourism and education. Guided educational and sightseeing programs for visitors, including independent, group, and family tourists, are helpful for effectively raising awareness of wetlands and distributing ecotourism concepts. Our study demonstrates that visiting wetlands is becoming an increasingly popular form of ecotourism in South Korea, supporting the importance of preserving this fragile ecosystem service.