• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.78-93
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study is to analyze college students' perception of national natural heritages, including natural monumentsand scenic sites, in comparison with the similar concepts of national parks and eco-landscape preservation areas, to suggest managerial implications to enhance competitiveness. The first objective of this study is to measure their attitude toward traveling each type of natural heritage and to rate the relative importance of the four types of heritages in terms of preservation. Natural monuments were perceived as the most strongly preserved type, while scenic sites were perceived as the least strongly preserved type. The second objective is to conduct a correspondence analysis to match the concepts of four types of natural heritages with 10 tourist attractions representing the types. It was found that college students have difficulty appropriately identifying the types of 10 tourist attractions. In addition, multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) was implemented to identify the similarities and differences of the four types of natural heritages and to produce a positioning map matching the four types of natural heritages with the six attributes representing each type as a tourist attraction. Natural monuments were perceived very differently from scenic sites and not very differently from eco-landscape preservation areas. There were a few associations between the four types of natural heritages and the six tourism attributes, implying that little effort is made to promote and position each type of natural heritage in terms of tourism. In conclusion, a public awareness program is required to enhance the brand image of natural monuments and scenic sites in comparison to national parks and eco-landscape preservation areas. In addition, local residents who live near the natural heritages should be bolstered to play a managerial role as supporters and contents providers for sustainability.