장애인관광시장과 동 시장 활성화 방안에 대한 우리나라 여행업 종사원의 인식

Travel agencies have a very important role of connecting between tourism products and potential tourists as they have knowledge and detailed information on tourism products or services. As such they could make great contributions to facilitate disabled tourist market. expansion. This study's aim was to investigate travel agency employees' perception on the characteristics of the disability tourist market and tactics for the market expansion. A questionnaire was developed from the literature review and personal interviews with professionals in the field. Data was at first collected via e-mails, but on-site survey was supplemented due to low response rate. A total of 157questionnaires were collected from both data gathering processes. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistics. Major findings include the followings. First, respondents highly recognized that the disabled had the right to travel as did their counterpart and had different travel related requirements according to their personal situations. But respondents did not recognize the potential economic benefits accrued from the market. Second, respondents agreed that all suggested tactics were very necessary to expand the market size. Third, respondents responded that their companies'readiness states for the market were extremely insufficient. Discussions with the results and further research directions were suggested.