Environment-friendly organic products in villages for experiential rural tourism not only are very crucial as a pull factor that attracts tourists but also can serve as a way out for the development of rural areas. Experiences of agricultural products and local dishes can revitalize experiential rural tourism and act as attractors that draw tourists to farm villages for tourism consistently. This study examines factors affecting rural experience tourists'' purchase of environment-friendly organic products, thereby suggesting marketing strategies for promoting the consumption of environment-friendly organic products of villages for experiential rural tourism.
The objectives of this study are as follows.
First, this study seeks a way to increase rural household incomes including farm incomes and tourism revenue, a form of nonfarm incomes, by providing city dwellers with the opportunity to experience farm life through the provision of places for recreation and rest using rural natural scenery and amenity resources and selling environment-friendly organic products.
Second, this study aims to develop a scale for measuring factors affecting purchase of environment-friendly organic products by theoretically reestablishing the extrinsic attributes of villages for experiential rural tourism.
Third, this study analyzes factors affecting rural experience tourists'' purchase of environment-friendly organic products, using the results as the basic marketing data for environment-friendly organic products and rural area development.
The main findings of this study are as follows.
According to the results of an extrinsic attribute analysis, a total of six attributes were extracted just as in a previous study. The six attributes were ''service,'' ''things to experience,'' ''things to see,'' ''expenses,'' ''things to eat,'' and ''things for rest,'' which are consistent with the results of the previous study (Jeong Gu-jo, 2011).
The first of the main findings is that a simple linear regression analysis conducted to understand the effects of the intrinsic attributes on the perceived quality revealed statistically significant differences.
Second, a multiple regression analysis conducted to understand the effects of the extrinsic attributes on the perceived quality showed that all the extrinsic attributes excepting ''service'' and ''things to eat'' were insignificant. This indicates that the perception of the quality of environment-friendly organic products is highly influenced by ''service'' and ''things to eat'' among the extrinsic attributes. Therefore, both the kindness of residents of villages for experiential rural tourism and the role of facilitator for experiential programs are the most important factors in inducing rural experience tourists'' purchase of environment-friendly organic products. In this sense, educational programs focusing on residents of villages for experiential rural tourism and experiential programs should be developed. In addition, more efforts need to be made to develop a variety of local dishes representing villages for experiential rural tourism.
Third, a simple linear regression analysis was conducted to identify the effects of the intrinsic attributes on the perceived value, and the results revealed statistically significant differences.
Fourth, a multiple regression analysis was carried out to determine the effects of the extrinsic attributes on the perceived value, and ''service,'' ''things to experience,'' ''things to eat,'' and ''things for rest'' among the six attributes showed significant results. Considering the significant effects of the extrinsic attributes on the perceived value, this does not indicate that the two excluding attributes, such as ''things to see'' and ''expenses,'' do not have a significant influence on the value of environment-friendly organic products. Instead, it might be implied that tourists perceive the four attributes, ''service,'' ''things to experience,'' ''things to eat,'' and ''things for rest,'' to be important attributes for realistic evaluating to the value of environment-friendly organic products.
Fifth, a mediator regression analysis was conducted to verify Hypothesis 5 stating ''the perceived value of environment-friendly organic products in villages for experiential rural tourism will act as a mediator for the influence of the perceived quality on purchase intention,'' and the results showed that the perceived quality has an influence, as a partial mediator of the perceived value, on purchase intention.