Perceived Impact of a Naval Base on a Tourism Destination

Perceptions toward tourism development have been explicitly and extensively investigated within the tourism literature. However, there is little study of perceptions toward non-tourism development (NTD) in tourist destinations. NTD in a tourist destination may be unavoidable, because as tourism grows, the destination may need more facilities and infrastructure to meet the needs of tourists and residents. Alternatively, the NTD may not enhance tourism at all, but rather compete for space and human, financial and political resources. The objective of this study is to reveal how residents of a small tourism-oriented island, JeJu Island in South Korea, would perceive NTD and examine ramifications of a naval base for tourism preferences. Residents were clustered into three groups based on their preferences for tourism activity, Tourism Supporters, Tourism Neutrals, and Tourism Opponents. Study results revealed that the three groups differed among socio-demographic variables as well as perceived cultural and local infrastructure impacts of NTD.