This study was started on the background where a stress increased due to
various social environments even in fruitful life and healing wave for searching
after physical·mental happiness had an effect on even consumption trends and
tourism trends. Tourists get to have diverse desires for nature-friendly healing
tourism and outdoor relaxation and require high-quality relaxation experience and
satisfaction. Therefore, among various healing industries such as spa and temple
stay, forest recreation come to be selected and studied.
This is a study on the effect that a push-pull factor as tourism motivation has
on the perceived value and satisfaction with tourism. And visitors at healing
forest were surveyed. With regard to the objectives of this study, it is intended to
make a strategic suggestion as to activating the healing forest after understanding
why people visit healing forest as a specific destination of the healing tourism,
and what attractiveness pulls people, and what effect this motivation for visit has
on the perceived value of and satisfaction with healing forest.
With regard to the empirical study, visitors at 3 national healing forests
(Saneum Healing Forest, Jangseong Healing Forest, and Cheongtaesan Healing
Forest) were surveyed. And samples were collected by convenience sampling
method every weekend from 10 April 2015 to 10 May 2015. During the survey, a
total of 372 questionnaires were distributed, and 342 valid filled questionnaires
were collected.
Through an analysis, with regard to tourism motivation, a push factor was extracted as 3 factors of physical motivation, emotional motivation, and social
motivation, and a pull motivation was extracted as 3 factors of natural
environment, facilities, and program and activity respectively. Besides, the
perceived value was extracted as 2 factors of emotional value and utilitarian value.
According to the results of hypothesis testing, it was shown that a push factor as
tourism motivation had an effect on utilitarian value, and emotional motivation and
social motivation, 2 factors except physical motivation, had on the emotional value.
Besides, it was shown that all pull factors as tourism motivation had an effect on
utilitarian value, and natural environment and facilities factors except program and
activity factor had an effect on the emotional value. With regard to relation
between push-pull factor and overall satisfaction, it was shown that all factors
except program and activity in pull factors had a significant effect on satisfaction.
And it was shown that all the perceived value factors had a significant effect on
satisfaction. Finally, according to the results of checking whether a push-pull
factor had an effect on the overall satisfaction with the perceived value as a
mediating variable, it was shown that the utilitarian value had a mediating effect
on the relation between physical motivation, emotional motivation, social
motivation, natural environment, and facilities and the overall satisfaction. It was
shown that the emotional value had a mediating effect on the relation between
emotional motivation, social motivation, natural environment, and facilities, and the
overall satisfaction.
When the implication of the study results is considered, management is required,
such as securing sufficient places for relaxation and isolating distraction so that a
forest recreation factor can be absorbed better. At the working level, in order to
develop as tour package the forest recreation effect such as healing a specific
disease or illness, or boosting immunity, it will be necessary to develop various
contents such as connection between regions and connection with tourist
attractions in the vicinity. It is thought that this study has a limit from a time
perspective, and an additional study relating to the healing program will need to
be made in the future.