A Comparative Study on Perceptions of Support Policies of Tourism Activities to Resolve Cultural Inequality of the Socially Disadvantaged: A Study on Realizing Tourism Policy as Public Policy

This study is an introductory study on exploring perceptions of support policies of tourism activities and analyzing them to explore the possibility of realizing tourism-based public policies to resolve cultural inequality for the socially disadvantaged. It examined the differences in perceptions among ordinary citizens, disabled people, multicultural citizens, pregnant women, and women raising infants and young children on support policies of tourism activities for the socially disadvantaged. The study measured the level of ordinary citizens’ and the socially disadvantaged’s perceptions of the importance and performance of public policies of tourism activity support and tourism resource development for the socially disadvantaged, recorded the data in matrices, and analyzed the differences among groups. It also examined the differences in perceptions of both the social phenomena that may appear during operating policies of tourism activity support and tourism resource development and the possibility of the additional costs required to carry out the policies. The results showed the significant difference in perceptions among each group for some survey items. It is necessary to converge and coordinate the thoughts of various social members and also consider the cultural structure, which affects the meaning and thought system of social groups to implement public tourism resource development policies based on securing accessibility to tourism resources. These tourism policies need to establish the values as public policies that help reconstruct the distribution system of culture and resolve cultural inequality of the socially disadvantaged.