Introduction
Chilgapsan Provincial Park in Chungcheongnam-do (Chungnam) is the first to be designated as a provincial park in Chungnam along with Deoksan Provincial Park. Located at the core axis of the Chungnam ecological network, it is one of the key resources of the ecosystem, and at least 80% of the entire space is comprised of Level 1 biotope areas that have high ecological conservation value (Chilgapsan Provincial Park Natural Resource Survey, 2018). On the other hand, the number of visitors to Chilgapsan Provincial Park is approximately 420 thousand a year as of 2021, and the number has been continuously decreasing since 2019 (Ministry of Environment, 2019). The number of visitors is expected to increase due to the recently prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, but since there is a potential demand for visits to a provincial park as a form of forest healing, it is necessary to subdivide visitor satisfaction. In particular, increasing visitors are recently showing multi-destination travel behaviors to improve satisfaction. Thus, it is even more necessary to subdivide and examine visitor characteristics and satisfaction by classifying visitors into those visiting only the provincial park and those visiting two or more destinations, since this could provide basic information for the local government to manage the provincial park efficiently within a limited budget.
Natural parks in South Korea can be classified into national parks, provincial parks, county parks, and geoparks (Natural Parks Act, 2016 revision). National parks represent valuable natural resources providing various ecosystem services, and cultural landscape of South Korea, and provincial parks are land area worthy of representing the natural ecosystem or the scenery of a province and a special self-governing province according to Article 4 and Article 4-3 of the Natural Parks Act. Since designating Jirisan National Park as the first natural park in 1967, there have been total 79 parks designated as of December 2021, including 22 national parks (6,726 km2), 30 provincial parks (1,147 km2), and 27 county parks (238 km2) (Ministry of Environment, 2022). Of the natural parks, a provincial park is an area that can represent the natural ecosystem or landscape of a special metropolitan city, metropolitan city. and special self-governing city (Natural Parks Act [enforcement on July 15, 2014.], Article 2). Provincial parks have an important value in that they provide forest ecosystem services for humans as suppliers. Therefore, this is necessary to minimize damage to natural resources so that not only the current generation but also future generations can benefit continuously from them. At the same time, there is a need for efficient management and operation to improve service quality within provincial parks are required to improve experience and satisfaction for visitors that are the actual users enjoying the natural resources of provincial parks. However, compared to national parks, increasing its cash-strapped budget for managing provincial parks is challenging since the budget is entrusted to local governments within limited budget.
Satisfaction is a typical psychological factor found in post-tourism experiences and it evaluates post-tourism images (Lee et al., 2011; Ko, 2013). Many previous studies examined satisfaction and revisit intention related to destinations and festivals (Cha et al., 2020; Hwang and Jang, 2021; Kim and Shin, 2020). They were generally on visitor characteristics depending on travel purposes and factors affecting the differences in satisfaction. Existing studies on natural parks showed that facility satisfaction and management level of natural resources had a significant effect on visitor satisfaction (Sim et al., 2014; Lee, 2015; Baek and Kim, 2010; Lee and Bae, 2006). Many studies on national parks analyzed visitor perceptions and behaviors (Kim et al., 2023; Lee et al., 2021; Sim et al., 2022; Kim and Lee, 2018), facility satisfaction (Yoo et al., 2022; Yun, 2022), usage patterns and satisfaction of visitors for strategies to operate and manage the Baekdudaegan Mountain Range (Jung et al., 2018), and effects on visiting motivations and satisfaction as well as behavioral intentions (Kim and Park, 2019; Kim and Kim, 2021). Some studies on provincial parks included those examining visitor perceptions (Sim et al., 2022; Kim and Kim, 2021). In terms of travel routes, some studies classified satisfaction of national park visitors by travel route (Sim and Jang, 2018). However, few studies have examined visitor satisfaction in terms of provincial park users or travel routes of visitors (Lee et al., 2023).
Moreover, intention to revisit (or revisit intention) and intention to recommend (or recommendation intention) that represent the continuous intention to visit were mostly used in previous tourism studies. Regarding the characteristics of multi-destination tourism, there are studies on tourist characteristics and differences in satisfaction, empirical analysis by pattern and type of travel space, and studies on the determinants affecting the hierarchical structure between destinations derived from multi-destination travel. Previous studies have shown the correlation between intention to revisit and intention to recommend (Kang and Park, 2021), comparison of multi-destination travel patterns between first visitors and repeat visitors through social network analysis (Park, 2021), multi-destination tourism characteristics and satisfaction of foreign tourists (Choi, 2020), and determinants of destination rankings in multi-destination travel applying the anchor-point theory (Park, 2021). However, even though various studies have been conducted on multi-destination travel, there is still insufficient research on the consequence factors of travel such as satisfaction, intention to revisit, and intention to recommend, and a few studies are on provincial park visitors.
Furthermore, visitors with travel purposes recently tend to show multi-destination travel behavior, visiting multiple destinations on a single trip. Few studies are on multi-destination travel behavior in which visitors visit multiple destinations scattered within a single region, even though they can provide important basic data in promoting localization.
Therefore, this study is to identify the travel purpose of the visitors and satisfaction of visit and to examine the characteristics of single-destination visitors visiting only Chilgapsan Provincial Park and multi-destination visitors also visiting other places within the region. By examining the characteristics and satisfaction towards single-destination/multi-destination travel of visitors, our findings might be useful to conserve sustainable natural resources for Provincial Parks and improving visitor services when establishing policies.
Research Methods
Study area
The site of this study is Chilgapsan Provincial Park located in Cheongyang, Chungnam with the area of 31.059 km2 (Fig. 1). Chilgapsan Provincial Park was designated on March 6, 1973 as a provincial park, which is a natural park equivalent to a park managed by the province according to the Natural Parks Act. In terms of specific use district, 77.7% of the park is the natural environment district, 20.7% is the nature conservation district, and 1.6% is the cultural heritage district. The total area partially increased from 31.059 km2 to 31.068 km2 as some parts of agricultural land were incorporated into the natural environment district in December 2019 due to a change in park planning. Level 1 biotope area is taking up 81.7% of the natural environment district and 95.7% of the cultural heritage district in the park. As for land use of Chilgapsan Provincial Park, forests account for 94.5%, which are generally mixed hardwood-softwood forests. The park shows excellent biodiversity that includes endangered species such as grey frog hawks and scarlet dwarf dragonflies, as well as superior conservation of nature, and requires continuous conservation and management in the future. As of 2021, the biodiversity in Chilgapsan Provincial Park consisted of 766 species including endangered species, with 8 endangered species of wild fauna and flora, 53 endemic species of South Korea, and 10 natural monuments (Ministry of Environment, 2019). It has 9 cultural resources including 2 national treasures and 4 treasures (Provincial and county park basic statistics, 2021).
Study design and data collection
This study conducted a face-to-face interview for main survey which was implemented after a pre-survey in October and November 2018 to examine the satisfaction of Chilgapsan Provincial Park visitors. The survey was implemented by trained experts and was taken by visitors climbing down from three points, Chilgap Square, Cheonjangho Lake, and Janggoksa Temple, that are visited the most among the hiking trails formed in Chilgapsan Provincial Park.
The questionnaire items consisted of demographic characteristics that include general details about respondents such as gender, age, and residential district. The items were designed based on previous studies and reports, including items on visiting characteristics such as purpose of visit, visiting experience, and type of companion. Moreover, visitor satisfaction items were classified into landscape satisfaction, facility satisfaction, and usage satisfaction, consisting of items including overall satisfaction towards visiting the provincial park and intention to revisit. Items on satisfaction were rated on a Likert scale from 1 point (‘Strongly disagree’) to 5 points (‘Strongly agree’). Total 318 samples were valid excluding those with no responses, and descriptive statistics was conducted using SPSS Statistics Ver. 21 on valid samples.
For data analysis, frequency analysis was conducted to examine visitor satisfaction, behavioral intentions, and demographic characteristics. The means and standard deviations of the 5-point scale on satisfaction were examined through the frequency analysis. Moreover, frequency analysis and cross-tabulation analysis were conducted to examine satisfaction, intention to revisit, and intention to recommend by gender, age, and place of residence, which are demographic characteristics. Binomial logistic regression was conducted to examine whether selecting travel routes affects landscape satisfaction, intention to revisit, and demographic characteristics. Binomial logistic regression is a statistical method for determining how dependent variables affect independent variables as bivariate variables. This study set provincial park travel route (single-destination/multi-destination) as the binary dependent variable and analyzed landscape satisfaction, visiting information, amenities, intention to revisit, gender, age, and place of residence including explanatory variables.
Results and Discussion
General characteristics of respondents
Demographic characteristics of visitors
The demographic characteristics of Chilgapsan Provincial Park visitors are as follows (Table 1). There was the same ratio of male and female visitors, and 115 male visitors (72.3%) visited only Chilgapsan Provincial Park (single-destination), and 122 male visitors (76.7%) had other travel routes (multi-destination). Most single-destination visitors were in their 30s and 50s (21 visitors, 25.9%), and most multi-destination visitors were in their 40s (62 visitors, 26.2%). Most visitors (62.3%) lived in Daejeon and Sejong, and 29.6% of single-destination visitors lived in the Gyeonggi and Seoul metropolitan area, and 33.8% of multi-destination visitors lived in Daejeon and Sejong.
Travel routes according to visitor experience
Table 2 shows the results of examining Chilgapsan Provincial Park visitors by classifying them into those visiting only Chilgapsan and those visiting other regions through Chilgapsan or have another purpose of visit depending on travel route. Out of total 318 Chilgapsan Provincial Park visitors, 81 (25.5%) visited only Chilgapsan Provincial Park, while 237 (74.5%) were multi-destination visitors who visited other places after the provincial park. This showed that there were more respondents who visited Chilgapsan as a multi-destination travel route than a single-destination travel route.
Visiting characteristics of visitors
Purpose of visit
Table 3 shows the purpose of visiting the provincial park. As a result of examining the purpose of visit among all visitors, most (112 visitors, 35.2%) visited for relaxation and meditation. 30 visitors (37.0%) with a single-destination travel route had the purpose of relaxation and meditation, and 22 visitors (27.2%) had the purpose of promoting fellowship. 82 visitors (34.6%) with various travel routes also had the purpose of relaxation and meditation, followed by 66 visitors (23.2%) with the purpose of promoting fellowship.
Type of companion
Table 4 gives the characteristics accompanied by visitors. Most visitors (123 visitors, 38.7%) visited Chilgapsan Provincial Park with family and relatives, followed by 88 (27.7%) accompanied by friends and 49 visitors (6.9%) who visited in groups through clubs or gatherings. For single-destination visitors, most visitors (32 visitors, 39.5%) visited Chilgapsan Provincial Park with family and relatives, followed by 21 (25.9%) who visited with friends. For multi-destination visitors with various travel routes, 91 visitors (38.4%) visited Chilgapsan Provincial Park with family and relatives, followed by 67 visitors (28.3%) who visited with friends. This result is similar to previous research on national parks, in which most national park visitors are accompanied by family or friends (Baek and Kim, 2010).
Period of stay
Table 5 shows the results of examining the period of stay. By travel route, most (232 visitors, 73.0%) went on a day trip in total. 59 visitors (72.8%) went to only Chilgapsan Provincial Park for a one-day visit, followed by 21 (25.9%) who had planned an overnight trip. 173 visitors (73.0%) with multi-destination travel routes went on a day trip, followed by 63 (26.6%) who went on an overnight trip.
Intention to revisit and intention to recommend by single-destination/multi-destination travel route visitors
Table 6 shows the results of examining behavioral intentions of provincial park visitors in terms of intention to revisit and intention to recommend. Most visitors responded that they have the intention to revisit, showing the mean of 4.11. The mean of revisit intention was 4.12 for single-destination visitors, and that for multi-destination visitors was 4.10, indicating that most visitors had the intention to revisit. Moreover, as for the intention to recommend the park to others, the means were lower than the intention to revisit. The mean of the intention to recommend was 3.81 for all visitors, the mean for single-destination visitors was 3.72, and the mean for multi-destination visitors was 3.83.
Visit satisfaction of visitors
Visit satisfaction according to characteristics of factors
Table 7 shows the results of examining overall satisfaction, satisfaction towards scenery, satisfaction towards amenities, visiting information, satisfaction towards cultural resources, and satisfaction towards facility maintenance in the provincial park. The mean of overall satisfaction was 4.08 for all visitors, and the mean of landscape satisfaction was 4.45, which was the highest among the factors. The mean of visiting information satisfaction was 4.05 for all visitors, and the means of facility maintenance and satisfaction towards cultural resources were both 3.99. On the other hand, satisfaction towards amenities such as restrooms and parking lots was the lowest at 3.68. The overall satisfaction of single-destination visitors was 4.06, indicating that they were generally satisfied. Satisfaction towards scenery of single-destination visitors was the highest at 4.67, while other factors scored between 3 and 4, showing satisfaction with above-average scores. The overall satisfaction with the park was 4.09 for multi-destination visitors, and their satisfaction towards scenery was the highest at 4.37. They also responded that they were satisfied with visiting information, facility maintenance, and cultural resources, showing means higher than 4 and generally showing high satisfaction, whereas the mean of satisfaction towards amenities was somewhat low at 3.73. This study found that beautiful natural landscape was a key factor that determines satisfaction for visitors visiting Chilgapsan Provincial Park. This result is similar to previous studies in which the landscape of natural parks has a significant impact on satisfaction and serves as a key factor for visitors to visit natural parks (Chang and Bae, 2002, Sim and Jang, 2018). Among specific factors, satisfaction towards amenities (restrooms, parking lots, benches, etc.) was relatively low, implying that there is a need for improvement.
Intention to revisit according to demographic characteristics
Table 8 shows the results of the intention to revisit Chilgapsan Provincial Park according to demographic characteristics. By gender, 140 men (88.1%) and 130 women (81.8%) showed the intention to revisit in total. 33 single-destination male visitors (89.2%) and 38 single-destination female visitors (86.4%) showed the intention to revisit. 107 multi-destination male visitors (87.7%) and 92 multi-destination female visitors (80.0%) showed the intention to revisit. By age, high percentages of the 60s and older (90.2%) and the 20s (88.9%) showed the intention to revisit among all respondents. The 30s (90.5%) and 40s (87.5%) showed the highest intention to revisit among single-destination visitors, and the 20s (95.5%) and 60s (88.5%) showed the highest intention to revisit among multi-destination visitors. By place of residence, 90.0% of all visitors and 91.4% of multi-destination visitors living in Chungnam showed the highest percentages, and 90.9% of single-destination visitors living in Gyeonggi and Seoul showed the highest percentage of revisit intention.
Intention to recommend according to demographic characteristics
Table 9 shows the results of the intention to recommend Chilgapsan Provincial Park to others according to demographic characteristics. By gender, 124 men (78.0%) and 104 women (65.4%) showed the intention to recommend in total. 29 single-destination male visitors (78.4%) and 26 single-destination female visitors (59.1%) showed the intention to recommend. 95 multi-destination male visitors (77.9%) and 78 multi-destination female visitors (67.8%) showed the intention to recommend. By age, the 60s and older (78.7%) showed the highest intention to recommend among all respondents, followed by the 50s (72.3%) and 20s (72.2%). The 60s and older (77.8%) showed the highest intention to recommend among single-destination visitors, followed by the 50s (71.4%), and the 60s and older (78.8%) showed the highest intention to recommend among multi-destination visitors, followed by the 20s (77.3%). By place of residence, all visitors, single-destination visitors, and multi-destination visitors living in Chungnam showed the highest intention to recommend, followed by those living in Daejeon/Sejong and Gyeonggi/Seoul.
Results of logit analysis according to the travel route of visitors
Table 10 shows the results of the binomial logistic regression modeling to determine the effect of other travel purposes on visitor satisfaction and intention to revisit among visitors of Chilgapsan Provincial Park. The results showed that the −2 LL and Chi-square value verifying the fit of the model were 292.96 and 118.78 (p < .001), showing statistical significance, providing that the model is fit. The significant independent variables were landscape, visiting information, and age. Landscape and visiting information were significant within a 1% level, and age was significant within a 5% level. For Exp(β), landscape showed the biggest rate of increase, followed by visiting information. This result indicates that, when landscape satisfaction increases by 1 unit while considering other variables to have consistent values, the probability of multi-destination visits increases by approximately 2.1 times compared to the probability of not visiting.
Conclusion
This study identified the satisfaction level of visitors visiting Chilgapsan Provincial Park in Chungcheongnam-do according to their demographic and travel characteristics and suggested factors affecting whether there are multiple destinations. The results of examining the demographic characteristics of the respondents are as follows. By travel route, 74.5% of all visitors also visited other destinations in addition to the provincial park, while 25.5% visited only the provincial park, showing a relatively low percentage. This result is similar to previous research showed that tourists are recently seeking multi-destination travel (Sim and Jang, 2018). Moreover, for purpose of visit among multi-destination and single-destination visitors, they both showed high percentages of purposes such as relaxation and meditation as well as promoting fellowship. For type of companion, many visitors visited with family and relatives or friends. As for period of stay, most visitors went on a day trip even though they visited other places in addition to the provincial park in their travel routes.
The findings of this study have shown that single-destination visitors showed high satisfaction towards scenery while multi-destination visitors showed higher overall satisfaction towards the provincial park. Moreover, more multi-destination visitors responded that it was easy to obtain visiting information, but their satisfaction towards amenities was the same as single-destination visitors. In addition, multi-destination visitors showed higher satisfaction towards facility maintenance, and more multi-destination visitors also responded that the nature was well conserved compared to single-destination visitors.
Furthermore, the revisit intention of visitors according to travel route was generally high with the mean exceeding 4 on a 5-point Likert scale. As for the intention to recommend to others, the means were 3.8 for multi-destination visitors and 3.7 for single-destination visitors, which tended to be high, but lower than the means of the intention to revisit. This showed that single-destination visitors who visited only the provincial park to enjoy the park’s landscape and natural environment showed a high intention to revisit. As a result of examining according to demographic characteristics, men showed relatively higher revisit intention regardless of travel route. With respect to the age, most single-destination visitors in their 60s or older and 30s showed the highest intention to revisit, and most multi-destination visitors in their 20s and 60s or older showed high intention to revisit. In terms of a residential district, single-destination visitors living in Seoul and Gyeonggi showed the highest intention to revisit, and multi-destination visitors living in Chungnam showed the highest percentage. As for the intention to recommend according to demographic characteristics, men showed the highest intention to recommend, and both single-destination and multi-destination visitors in their 60s or older showed the intention to recommend the park to others. With regard to a residential district, both single-destination and multi-destination visitors living in Chungnam showed a high intention to recommend the park to others.
As a result of examining the effect on whether there is a travel route through binomial logistic regression, it was found that age, landscape satisfaction, and visiting satisfaction had statistical significance. The variable landscape and visiting satisfaction had statistical significance at the 1% level, and age at the 5% level. This indicated that younger age, higher landscape satisfaction, and less visiting information lead to higher desired probability of choosing a multi-destination travel route.
This study provides the following implications. First, since Chilgapsan Provincial Park is located at the core ecological axis of Chungnam and consists of a high share of Level 1 biotope areas, policy approaches for biodiversity conservation as well as efforts to conserve forest ecosystem services are needed. At the same time, there is a need for policies to improve service quality for visitors. In particular, there might be policies to improve and manage service quality according to single-destination and multi-destination travel routes by subdividing visitors. Second, there would be need for a continuous conservation policy to maintain the high landscape satisfaction and overall satisfaction of visitors, and it would be also necessary to identify the travel routes of visitors and install additional rest areas with minimum adequate layout to improve satisfaction towards amenities, which was the lowest among both single-destination and multi-destination visitors. Third, it would be necessary to provide information based on the characteristics of Chilgapsan Provincial Park to increase the intention to revisit and recommend, develop experiential programs to extend travel space patterns around the region, and implement customized and subdivided policies. Local programs for visitors by travel period and type of stay must be established by classifying visitors into those visiting only the provincial park and those demanding all kinds of satisfaction as they travel via multiple stops.
This study would be of key importance in identifying the visitors preferences for a provincial park that had not been receiving much attention compared to national parks. It might give fundamental information for sustainable forestry management and policy measures of provincial parks by examining variables affecting visitor satisfaction and revisit intention. However, there are limitations in terms of site and method of research. This study area is limited to Chilgapsan Provincial Park in Chungnam and thus cannot represent visitors of all provincial parks nationwide. This study examined basic satisfaction and behavior of single-destination and multi-destination travelers. In addition, this study was conducted before the outbreak of COVID-19, and thus further research must examine characteristics and visit satisfaction of provincial park visitors by subdividing them considering their potential demand for forest healing, since many people are expected to visit the mountains and forests to cope with depression and helplessness caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it is necessary to consider the connectivity between specific stops or destinations in examining the travel routes of visitors, identify how much is spent for traveling expenses by region, or examine visitor behavior according to the expenses and travel distance of visitors. Further studies are required to understand the results of examining the distance and stopover time as well as expenses to income ratio. Furthermore, future research can examine how much visitors are willing to pay for maintenance and conservation of forest ecosystem services at provincial parks in association with pro-environmental behavior according to the different travel purposes of visitors.
PDF Links
PubReader
ePub Link
Full text via DOI
Download Citation
