During the Joseon period, the East Sea would be called ‘Gyeonghae’ due to a large number of whales. In the Republic of Korea, whaling was locally permitted in 1946. However, the number drastically dropped because the hunting of the marine mammal had already been carried out in Russia, the U.S. and Japan since 1800s. Before a moratorium on commercial whaling was introduced by the International Whaling Commission(IWC) in 1986, whale populations in the East Sea had plunged. Furthermore, Korean gray whales and fin whales weren’t found anymore in that area. With the suspension, whale hunting was banned in Korea as well. Even so, accidentally caught whales have been allowed to be distributed on the market with respect for local food culture. With the establishment of Whale Museum and hosting of the 57th Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission(IWC) at Jangsaengpo in 2005, whale tourism was facilitated in earnest. This whale tourism has been operated by Nam-gu Office and Nam-gu City Management Corporation in Ulsan. However, the popularity of whale tourism has increased a demand for whale meat. At the same time, there has been concern over decrease in whale populations because of illegal whaling. In addition, a conflict between the use and protection of whales has caused confusion in tourism identity. Actually, there is a serious doubt on the sustainability of whale tourism due to the decade-long deficit and excessive investments. This study attempts to define a concept of whale tourism and propose a future direction for the sustainable growth and development of Korea’s whale tourism industry after developing such comprehensive assessment indicators as a basic research for the introduction of sustainable whale tourism. To achieve the aim of this study, AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process) was chosen as a main research tool and the factors were ranked by a comprehensive analysis of principal factors and detail factors. The current study showed the following results. First, ecological environment(0.430) was indicated the most important factor of whale tourism assessment indicators. Moreover, Population(0.1302), Action for Cetacean protection(0.1031), Governance(0.0898) were critical factors. On the other hand, Accommodations(0.0085), Whale meat(0.0088) were unimportant factors than others.

Re-visitation have an effect on dependent variables of regional tourism demand model. This study focused on the re-visitation impacts of consideration on sustainable tourism development of tourists as a new factors of tourism. Based on literature reviews, 11 variables were selected, a questionnaire survey was given to 406 tourists divided into 5 tourism sites at Chuncheon city, and logit model and probit model were used for analysis. The fitness levels of two models were very significant(p=0.0000). The study results suggest that the likelihood of the rural tourist to make a return visit is influenced by recognition of sustainable tourism, purchase of souvenir and farm produce, visitation of regional shops, conversation with regional residents, residents' participation on development, age and marriage. The results of such re-visitation demand can provide information for regional development strategies. The approach to re-visitation research impacts of consideration on sustainable tourism development is expected to become a useful foundation in studying on sustainable regional development.

The changes in the worldwide paradigm of the sustainable development have started to be applied in the entire industry fields, and they come out as the sustainable tourism in the field of tourism. And the ecotourism has emerged as a practical method to meet the needs of the actual practice and the intellectual system for the sustainable tourism. In the type of tourists based on tourist attitude, 82.3% has the environment-friendly tourist attitude as a potential ecological tourist or an ecological tourist. In addition, there are the potentials of increase in ecological tourists as well as the revitalization of ecological tourism. First, the ecological tourists are mostly the well-educated and married professional workers at 40, housewives, and people earning a high income. Next, the potential ecological tourists are mainly the well-educated and married professional workers at 30, workers in the service industry, and middle-class citizens. Lastly, the general tourists are the students at 20 who are single, earn a low income, and has low level of eduction. This study presents useful data to the tourist business in terms of the development, operation and management of sustainable ecological tourism.

This study aims to suggest a rural village development policy considering tourists' stay pattern and villages' resources which can be infrastructure for green-tourism. For this purpose, a relationship table between amenity resources and the stay pattern was developed as a guide line to combine a set of several facilities fer village renewal. The amenity resources system was classified into three sub-classes(social, industrial, and natural/cultural/historical resources) and a relationship diagram between three classes and tourists' behavior was also defined. The table and diagram were applied to make renewal plan for 40 rural villages of the study area, Bukmyun, Cheonan, Chungnam province, so that the development scheme for the villages was suggested reasonably by the new findings of this study.