Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Tourism Management and Hospitality
Year: 2024
DOI:
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A Systems Thinking Approach to Identify Leverage Points for Tidal Flat Ecotourism System
Dr. Ahyoung Yoon
ABSTRACT:
In Korea, large-scale land reclamation projects were carried out from 1970 to 2008, reducing the total tidal flat area by about 2,400km2. As the value of tidal flats has recently been re-examined, the Korean government and local organizations have been actively discussed ways to restore and preserve tidal flats. As a result, Korea’s tidal flat, known in Korean as getbol, was recognized for its conservation value worldwide and was listed as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site in 2021. Since then, as public interest in and awareness of tidal flats has expanded, the number of people visiting tidal flats has gradually increased. Previous studies on tidal flat ecotourism have mainly discussed from the social and environmental aspects: biodiversity conservation, ecosystem disturbance, sustainability , and damage to the lives of local residents. Many of those previous studies highlighted that tidal flat ecotourism consists of a complex value chain system and a number of stakeholders, and that external variables other than tourism factors change dynamically. Under this background, a systems thinking approach based on a feedback structure is required to identify the tidal flat ecotourism system. Systems thinking is one of the qualitative research methods that solve system problems and discover strategies by identifying the mechanisms of variables forming a system. From a systems perspective, tourism can be defined as inherently non-linear, forming complex relationships between components, external factors, tourists, and stakeholders. To implement this study, we selected Ganghwa tidal flats in Korea as a research area, one of the world’s top five tidal flats. In addition to the size of the tidal flats, the Ganghwa tidal flats were considered suitable as a research site for this study because the following issues have recently been discussed in relation to ecological reserves and tourist destinations: : (1) repromotion of Ganghwa tidal flats to the World Natural Heritage List, (2) its value as an ecological tourist destination, and (3) policy of its sustainable conservation. Considering these issues, we proposed applying systems thinking to better understand feedback structure and dynamics of the system including various stakeholders, value chains, and system components of Ganghwa tidal flats. Therefore, this study aims to derive positive and negative factors that tidal flat ecotourism influences the marine ecosystem and its surrounding areas, and to understand the interaction between each factor through circular causality. In addition, we explore the policy leverage points of the Ganghwa tidal flat ecotourism system through causal loop diagram analysis. Based on the results, the current study proposes effective policy alternatives so that the tidal flat ecotourism system can ensure its future sustainability.
keywords: Systems thinking, Tidal flat ecotourism, Qualitative system dynamics, Causal loop diagram