• Asia Marketing Journal
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.15-29
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• 2013

Shopping is considered a 'must-do' activity for most people on travel. One of the major parts of tourist shopping is the purchasing of souvenirs. Souvenirs are universally associated with tourism as a commercially produced and purchased object to remind the purchaser of the experience. Recently, Korea becomes one of the most popular destinations that many Asian tourists like to visit. Among those Asian tourists, the number of Thai tourists bound for Korea shows an incredible rapid growth. Thai people pick Korea and Seoul as their favorite country and city to visit for three consecutive years since 2009. One of the major reasons why Thais are choosing to tour Korea is the enthusiasm for Korean pop culture. That is, 'Hallyu' has influenced Thais' decision to visit Korea and purchase Korean products. The primary objective of the current research is to explore the shopping experiences of Thai tourists, specifically their souvenir shopping. It adopts a reflexive interpretive approach to bring light to the various meanings Thai tourists attach to the souvenirs they purchase in Korea. In order to accomplish the objective, the individual interviews were conducted. A total of 12 Thais who have experienced traveling in Korea participated in the study. Four themes were identified through interview text analysis. First, the research participants almost always purchase souvenirs in Korea because the souvenirs represent their identities as tourists. Especially, they purchase the souvenirs as gifts for others, including family members, friends, and colleagues. The souvenirs as gifts show love and thanks to others, and they cement the social relationship. However, purchasing souvenirs for others is more like the moral obligations which evoke the psychological stress. Secondly, the research participants feel closer to Korea while shopping souvenirs around. Thirdly, they obtain imaginative experiences and pleasure through souvenirs related to the Korean pop culture. Souvenirs provide them to visually extraordinary experiences. Lastly, souvenirs purchased in Korea act as visible status marker when they go back to Thailand. They show the socioeconomic status and lifestyles. Tourists themselves and others place special value to souvenirs that were purchased out of Thailand. The findings of this study are of both academic and practical importance. Souvenirs are among the most pervasive elements of the travel experience. However, souvenir shopping is the complicated consumer behavior within tourism both from business and social science perspectives. Along the same line, it needs strategic approaches in order to maximize the economy effects. It concludes by suggesting how further research could offer unique insights into how the souvenirs are positioned both in the context of tourism academics and industry.

• 패션비즈니스
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.101-114
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• 2019

This study aims to analyze the color characteristics of Japanese cultural product shops and differences in business categories by analyzing the colors of the Gion Shopping Street in Kyoto, Japan. Through the study, the traditional colors are reflected not only in the domestic cultural products but also the interior colors of shops. That way, visitors can be influenced naturally and gain indirect cultural experience to form a good image of Korea, which can help to improve sales of cultural products. The analysis was conducted through the colors of Munsell to determine the overall, dominant, assort, and accent colors based on categories of goods to identify the characteristics of the traditional Japanese cultural product shop. Among the 85 shops that were surveyed, YR and W frequently appeared as chromatic and neutral colors. Dominant was W, and assort was YR. B, P and Y also showed up. In color combination analysis, 35.3% was contrasted. For the hue, 32.9% was dark. Based on goods categories, confectionary shops used YR mainly, while souvenir and fashion accessory shops used W the most. Restaurants mostly had W as thedominant and YR for assorting. Cafes and art shops used Bk the most. The interior colors of cultural products shops should maintain the atmosphere of tradition and convey images of the products well. Based on this research, Korea also needs to actively reflect the interior designs of cultural product shops using traditional colors.