• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.636-644
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• 2015

In this paper, we examined factors that affect the success of a policy on trekking time restriction using questionnaire survey data collected from the visitors of seven national parks where the trekking time restriction policy is in force as of 2014. Results suggest that the trekking time restriction policy has been successfully publicized. In total, 60.7% of the survey respondents were aware of trekking time restrictions in the national parks they were visiting. Using exploratory factor analysis, we identified three latent factors (visitors' careless trekking, park rangers' insufficient management and visitors' unpreparedness) that the visitors perceived the causes of trekking accidents in the national parks. Multiple regression analysis on the three extracted factors and respondents' socioeconomic status shows that the respondents who read information signs in national parks and who judged visitors' careless trekking and visitors' unpreparedness as the causes of trekking accidents tended to agree more with restricting trekking time. These results indicate that visitors who do not agree with the trekking time restriction tend to attribute trekking accidents in national parks not to individual visitors, suggesting that educating visitors is more effective in preventing trekking accidents in national parks than installing and maintaining safety facilities by park rangers.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.588-596
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• 2014

This study investigated the efficacy and drawbacks of a trekking accident prevention programs of the Jirisan National Park using visitor survey data. In total, 394 visitors were surveyed at the entrances to Seongsamjae, Jungsanri, Baekmudong, and Ssanggyesa trails on both weekdays and weekends. The trekking accident prevention training course has not been widely publicized. Only 23.4 % of the survey respondents have participated the training course. The training course itself appears to be useful in that 51.1 % of the course participants positively responded the contents of the course, suggesting that, if well publicized, the program can help prevent trekking accident. The trekking time regulation was relatively well publicized. Of the survey respondents, 72.4 % were aware of this regulation, and 72.2 % of them agreed on applying this regulation to other national parks. Accident vulnerability analysis shows that respondents who were aware of the regulation tend to be more experienced and skilled in trekking and more prepared for accident than those who were not. Also, respondents who were satisfied more on park safety facilities tend to be more experienced and skilled in trekking and more prepared for accident.