Feeling ‘Protected’ in Mass Organized Group Tours: A South Korean Case

Abstract

This study provides further understanding of mass organized tourists byidentifying the push factors for mass tourism in a Korean context. It is proposed that ‘protection seeking’ tendency and perceived travel risks are two push factors thatencourage Korean tourists to choose mass tourism products. This study employed amixed method approach in which qualitative and quantitative approaches weresequentially conducted across two stages. This study successfully identified thedimension of ‘protection seeking’ and found it has a significant role in a Koreantourist context. The ‘protection seeking’ tendency increases the likelihood of potential tourists to choose the mass organized tours. However, perceived risks were not foundto be directly related to choosing the mass organized tours; perceived risks weresignificantly related to ‘protection seeking’. This study reveals that a critical reasonwhy Korean tourists choose mass tourism products is because they want apsychological ‘shelter’ and the ability to call for help in case of emergency. Thisimplies that various types of mass organize tours are needed to be designed for thefuture. This result is particularly of significance for those who desire to make theirholiday products more attractive to Korean outbound tourists.