• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.45-52
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• 2020

Purpose: In the 4th industrial revolution, services that incorporate various smart technologies in the tourism sector have begun to gain popularity. Accordingly, academic discussions on smart tourism have also started to become active in various fields. Despite recent research, the definition of smart tourism is still ambiguous, and it is not easy to differentiate its scope or characteristics from traditional tourism concepts. Thus, this study aims to analyze the perception of smart tourism exposed online to identify the current point of smart tourism in Korea and present the research direction for conceptualizing smart tourism suitable for the domestic situation. Research design, data, and methodology: This study analyzes the perception of smart tourism exposed online based on 20,198 news data from portal sites over the past six years. Data on words used with smart tourism were collected from the leading portal sites Naver, Daum, and Google. Text mining techniques were applied to identify the social awareness status of smart tourism. Network analysis was used to visualize the results between words related to smart tourism, and CONCOR analysis was conducted to derive clusters formed by words having similarity. Results: As a result of keyword analysis, the frequency of words related to the development and construction of smart tourism areas was high. The analysis of the centrality of the connection between words showed that the frequency of keywords was similar, and that the words "smartphones" and "China" had relatively high connection centrality. The results of network analysis and CONCOR indicated that words were formed into eight groups including related technologies, promotion, globalization, service introduction, innovation, regional society, activation, and utilization guide. The overall results of data analysis showed that the development of smart tourism cities was a noticeable issue. Conclusions: This study is meaningful in that it clearly reflects the differences in the perception of smart tourism between online and research trends despite various efforts to develop smart tourism in Korea. In addition, this study highlights the need to understand smart tourism concepts and enhance academic discussions. It is expected that such academic discussions will contribute to improving the competitiveness of smart tourism research in Korea.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.1-9
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• 2018

The purpose of this exploratory study is to identify the mobile phone applications (apps) used by foreign tourists visiting South Korea through a pilot study using focus groups and individual interviews. Concentrating on tourist mobile app use in a smart tourism environment and categorized through a taxonomy of mobile applications lays the framework and determines the factors boosting tourism smartphone app trends by foreign tourists visiting South Korea. Researchers collected data through ethnographic methods and analyzed it through qualitative research to uncover major themes within the smart tourism app use phenomenon. The researchers coded, counted, analyzed, and then divided the findings gleaned from a pilot study and interviews into a taxonomy of seven logical smartphone app categories. The labeling and coding of all the data accounting for similarities and differences can be recognized and are logically discussed in the implications of the apps used by tourists to assist tourist destinations. More specifically these findings will assist smart tourism destinations by better understanding foreign tourist smartphone app use behavior. Tourists visiting South Korea interviewed in this study exhibited significant mastery of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, craved free WiFi access, and utilized smartphone apps for all facets of their travel. Findings show major concentrations of app use in bookings of accommodations, tourist attractions, online shopping, navigation, wayfinding, augmented reality, information searching, language translation, gaming, and online dating while traveling in South Korea.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.391-397
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• 2014

This paper is concerned with medical tourism, which is expected to become the new growth engine of the 21st century. Medical tourism is a collaborative and synergistic composition of Healthcare and Tourism, and has led to a remarkable growth in 2012 since the year 2009, exhibiting huge growth potential. This paper reviews the emerging market of the medical tourism with five major hospitals in Korea from the perspective of medical tourists, and makes suggestions for the global health care and the sustainable development in Korean medical tourism as a growth market: the construction of websites for active services and transparent management of medical expenses with proper arrangement of medical consulting and advices, cooperation of the health care center and the medical tourism industry, and the activation of healthcare communication. For the smooth progress of medical tourism, this paper suggests two separate communication channels: one for the patient tourists and the other for the medical tourism coordinators. The former needs accuracy with professional knowledge on the healthcare and communication, which should be classified as medical interpreters working with disease-oriented medical tourists. The latter refers to international medical coordinators dedicated to the smooth progress of medical tourism and services. This paper also points out the creative efforts to improve the relatively poor infrastructure of tourism industry to accommodate the medical tourists, and improve the medical tourism industry.

• Journal of Smart Tourism
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.5-19
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• 2022

Smart tourism is seen as a revolution in the tourism industry, involving innovative and transformative theoretical-practical approaches for the sector. As a result of its application in the tourist context, benefits can be seen such as more sustainable practices, greater mobility and better accessibility in destinations, evolution of processes and experiences of tourists. Much of this is achieved through the support of technological solutions. However, despite the immense expectations, and the many researches carried out on it, a literature summary regarding the dimensions that can be observed in each application of this smart tourism has not yet been proposed. Therefore, supported by the PRISMA recommendation, this research proposed to carry out an integrative review of the literature on smart tourism (in its different levels of application, such as the city, the destination and the smart tourism region), with the objective of mapping the dimensions that underlie it. Thus, from an initial scope of 833 intellectual productions obtained, inputs were found for the dimensions in 363 of them after a thorough analysis. The compilation of data obtained from these productions supported the proposition of 14 operational dimensions of smart tourism, namely: collaboration, technology, sustainability, experience, accessibility, knowledge management, innovation management, human capital, marketing, customized services, transparency, safety, governance and mobility. With this set of dimensions, it is envisaged that the implementation of smart tourism projects can present more comprehensive and assertive results. In addition, shortcomings and opportunities for new research that support the evolution of the theory and practice of smart tourism are highlighted.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.1517-1523
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• 2016

The global medical tourism industry including Asian market has been activating recently. That is as medical tourists are motivated to seek the higher quality of healthcare with lower costs, as well as of travel. The consumers in this field tend to need customized services of medical tourism. It is needed that the consumers get customized information on medical services and traveling, the clinics and hospitals resolve the issues of offering translation and luring medical tourists from overseas, and the guides, who offer tour and translation service, provide the consumers and the clinics with customized services so that they get the services needed for one another. This research studies the Offline to Online, called O2O, matching platform based on global clinics, which connects medical facilities, patients, and guides for traveling and language services. It presents the customized marketing plans by utilizing customers' experiences from medical services and traveling they use.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.45-55
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to estimate the utility value of boat fishing experience marine tourism activity in Jeju Island's Chagwido. The utility value is estimated by single bounded and double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method. The contingent valuation method is used to estimate economic values for all kinds of coastal ecosystem services. The method involves directly asking people, in a survey, how much they would be willing to pay for specific environmental services. So, the method has great flexibility, allowing valuation of a wider variety of non-market goods and services than is possible with any other non-market valuation technique. This study collects the effective 504 questionnaires from boat fishing experience tourists in Jeju Island's Chagwido. The results show that the average willingness to pay amount(WTP) is estimated to be about 17,000 Korea won by single bounded and double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method. This indicates that the utility value of boat fishing experience marine tourism activity is estimated to be about 17,000 Korea won in Jeju Island's Chagwido.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.131-152
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• 2023

One of the key domains within a smart tourism city, smart mobility, encompasses advanced transportation means and services rooted in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This includes shared bicycles, scooters, car-sharing services, smart transportation infrastructure, and more, aiming to surpass limitations of conventional transport and improve the movement of people and goods. It also serves tourists as an affordable and convenient mode of transport between attractions while also enhancing the overall travel experience. This study has defined 'smart tourism mobility' as a form of mobility grounded in ICT, exhibiting exceptional connectivity, serving public interest, and serving as a mode of transport for both residents and tourists in a smart tourism city. The research aimed to outline the scope of smart tourism mobility-related industries through expert Delphi surveys and estimate their economic effects within a smart tourism city. Specifically, this study updated 2015 input-output table and made 2020 regional input-output table of Seoul adopting RAS method and location quotient method. The results showed that the about 2.8 billion KRW investment of Seoul in smart tourism mobility may create more than 4.1 billion KRW in production inducement effect which is expected to create more than 1.6 billion KRW of income-inducing effect, 3.6 billion KRW of value-added-inducing effect, and 54 employment across all industries in Seoul in 2022.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.139-146
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• 2019

There is often confliction between conservation for protected ecosystem assets and development for various stakeholders at wetland protection areas. The concept of Ecosystem Services can be an alternative solution for the conflicts. This paper attempted to measure and evaluate cultural ecosystem services according to the index evaluation approach. For the evaluation, the paper suggested five indicators of ecosystem cultural services including: inspiration, landscape aesthetics, education, eco-tourism, and heritage. The developed indices of cultural services in this study can be also utilized as a policy support tool for conservation of the wetland protected areas. The result illustrates the ranking and correlation of each indicator of ecosystem cultural services and suggestions for useful means of management policy in wetland protected areas.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.12
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• pp.959-968
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• 2020

Tourist loyalty is created through good tourism service quality and the availability of tourism products. This study discussed the various attributes of tourism service quality, namely, tour agents, efficient personnel, accessible transportation, and information service quality. Whereas for tourism product availability attributes were varieties of product availability, wide selection of tour agents and tourist products, and wide variety of amenity services. As a general rule, the minimum is to have at least five times as many observations as the number of variables to be analyzed, and the more acceptable sample size would have a 10:1 ratio. A total of 424 questionnaires were returned, with 35 removed due to errors. Finally, 389 questionnaires respondents were used via accidental sampling method through the distribution of questionnaires to foreign tourists at Soekarno Hatta International Airport. In addition, AMOS 7.0 software is used to test models in confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) as well as hypothetical testing using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that all hypotheses were accepted, except for the effect of tourism service quality on tourist loyalty in Indonesia. This research aims to contribute significantly to the existing knowledge of tourism, specifically from a foreign tourist perspective in Indonesia.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.17-34
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• 2011

Recently, medical market has been changing not for the sake of treatment of the disease but for high quality of health. Therefore, South Korea medical tourism service needs to understand and improve for the differences perceptions of medical tourists and health professionals for customer satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to understand the structure of medical tourism market through theoretical consideration and to suggest the factors which need to be taken precedence for improvement of South Korea medical tourism service through analysis differences between consumers and suppliers. To analyze the difference of awareness, we reconstructed the questionnaires focussing on evaluation factors and articles about medical tourists selection attributes and health professionals way to invigoration through previous research and precedence study. After that, we also collected the data based on reconstructed questionnaires. After we compared each collected responses from medical tourists and health professionals, also analyzed the differences of awareness by applying Johari's Window to those differences. In conclusion, there is no relation between medical tourist and health professionals about th differences of awareness in functional quality and cost that is a direct effect to transaction in current medical tourism of South Korea. In contrast, there are differences of awareness between a process which support medical tourism and technical quality. Therefor, we expect to invigorate medical tourism by innovation of supportive process and technical quality.