• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.175-187
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• 2012

Geotourism is an essential sector of geopark, as it stimulates sustainable development, local socioeconomic development as well as educational effects, from which geo-scientific knowledge can be communicated between the local people and the public. It is also a rapidly growing paradigm of nature-based tourism and is attractive in terms of its year-round accessibility to the sites. Passing over a decade history, it is necessary to present how it can establish a platform for further development and improvement across the country. In this regard, this study is to demonstrate how to develop geotourism model that is effectively applicable to Korean environment based on the enhancement of geotourism. We apply the general geotourism organization model to Haegeumgang in Geojedo Island in this study. Although this area is well known for its small boat tours, privately-guided-tour on the boat is insufficient in terms of delivering geological and geographical information from the geotourism perspective. Therefore, in order to develop the desirable Korean geotourism model, boat tours at Haegeumgang have to be supported professionally by the local government through the geotourism department and the partnership with the stakeholders.