LAUSR

This study examined tourists’ preferences for the change in the quality of rural tourism resources in Korea. This study measured tourists’ satisfaction levels about their recent tourism experience in a stated preference mechanism to estimate the economic value of qualitative improvement associated with tourism resources. Using a pivot-style experimental design approach in developing the choice experiment, this study estimated econometric models that allow for flexible structures in error components of the utility function. The results revealed that the welfare impacts of increase in satisfaction levels for tourism resources appear to be substantial. Among tourism resources, the households are more sensitive for the change in the quality of local amenities than other tourism resources. Total aggregated benefits generated by the improvement of satisfaction levels for local amenities make up 17.9–18.1% of the total tourism costs. This suggests that the continuous efforts to enhance the quality of tourism resources in rural areas and attract and satisfy rural tourists are important and necessary for the sustainability of rural economies.