Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
The Korean Society of Wood Science & Technology
Original Article

A Study on the Positioning Strategy of Wood Cultural Experience Center

Kyungrok WON1, Jinwoong BYEON1, Dowoong YOON1, Jonghye PARK1, Hanmin PARK2, Heeseop BYEON2,https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6059-9268
1Department of Environmental Materials Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, Korea
2Department of Environmental Materials Science, Institute of Agricultural Life Sciences, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52828, Korea
Corresponding author: Heeseop BYEON (e-mail: hsbyeon@gnu.ac.kr)

Copyright 2024 The Korean Society of Wood Science & Technology. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Oct 30, 2023; Revised: Nov 29, 2023; Accepted: Jan 16, 2024

Published Online: Mar 25, 2024

ABSTRACT

The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations is known to be closely associated with climate change and global warming. In this sense, considering that facilities for appropriate education and experience on wood, which is a carbon pool, have been required, this study targets the Wood Cultural Experience Centers, which are in current operation, examines and evaluates their operation status and policy changes, and ultimately derives a successful positioning plan. To this end, it conducts a survey, and the results are as follows. First, as a result of the similarity analysis (KYST: Kruskal-Young-Shepard-Torgerson program) with facilities with leisure activities and educational functions, the Wood Cultural Experience Center have competition with natural recreation forests in terms of naturalness, and it has competition with the career experience center and youth training center in terms of experiential observation. Second, the result of positioning analysis of the attribute space map indicates that the Wood Cultural Experience Center is positively perceived in terms of such attributes as naturalness, experiential learning or recreation, and preservation of natural environment, but is negatively recognized in terms of accessibility, escape from daily life, and things to see.

Keywords: Wood Cultural Experience Center; status analysis; positioning strategy

1. INTRODUCTION

Global warming has brought unprecedented extreme weather events around the world in recent years, and climate change is accelerating beyond expectations (Korea Association of Wood Culture, 2019). If a global temperature increases by more than 2°C, it will cause natural disasters such as heat waves, cold waves, forest fires, typhoons, and floods, as well as various issues such as socio-economic losses, political conflicts, and disputes (Park et al., 2023). The higher uncertainty due to climate change has made it difficult to control these issues, and the international community has begun to strive to respond to them. As a result, carbon neutrality policies have emerged as a crucial countermeasure, and carbon neutrality has been widely accepted as the most useful method to address climate change (Liu et al., 2023). This concept means that carbon dioxide absorption increases as much as carbon dioxide emissions, which are generated by companies or individuals, reaching net zero emissions. In other words, by taking measures to absorb enough carbon dioxide to offset the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, the total amount of carbon dioxide is neutralized (Lee, 2023).

Effective achievement of carbon neutrality requires more carbon sinks and carbon emission reduction; it is also necessary to encourage local residents to understand the meaning and necessity of carbon neutrality, and to participate in carbon neutrality-related activities through relevant education to improve and promote an awareness of carbon neutrality (Han et al., 2022; Jeon, 2010; Lee and Kim, 2023; Yang et al., 2023). As for wood, 48%–50% of its weight consists of carbon, and is an excellent material for achieving carbon neutrality. Therefore, the need for educational facilities has been emphasized for more education and higher awareness of the appropriate usage of wood and carbon neutrality (Cha et al., 2022; Choi et al., 2022; Han and Lee, 2021a; Ju et al., 2023; Lee et al., 2022; Ozdemir et al., 2023; Shrestha, 2022). The Wood Cultural Experience Centers were created as educational places specialized for meeting these needs, but currently, most of them are being used for exhibitions or for providing basic experiences without educational elements, and it is necessary to differentiate them from existing forest complexes and experience facilities in terms of leisure activities and educational functions.

Successful operation of the Wood Cultural Experience Center requires differentiation to create a unique position compared to other facilities, and consistency to maintain it over time. The center is a tourism and public destination that is closely related to eco-friendly facilities and carbon neutrality education and experience. It is essential to analyze and identify the competitiveness and preferences of similar leisure activities and experience facilities in South Korea. A perceptual map is created to identify consumer preference levels and the position of competitors in competition markets, and positioning refers to the localization on the map (Yoon and Lee, 2011). In marketing strategies, the process of making consumers aware of a particular product involves an evaluation and analysis of several factors such as product characteristics, relationships with competing products, and corporate images, and setting the product in a specific position in the competition (Choi et al., 2017).

This study analyzed the competitiveness of similar facilities to the Wood Cultural Experience Center in terms of leisure activities and educational functions, and derived a positioning for the differentiation and consistency of the center. The research was conducted in the following order. First, while targeting all the Wood Cultural Experience Centers in operation, it investigated the emergence and current operation status of the centers, and policy changes. Second, it performed a positioning analysis to scientifically examine how visitors consider the Wood Cultural Experience Centers, and what attributes differentiate the centers from other similar facilities. In this sense, this study examines the current operation of the Wood Cultural Experience Centers and suggests an efficient operation model.

2. MATERIALS and METHODS

2.1. Research design

The study aims to explore efficient operation strategies of the Wood Cultural Experience Centers after deriving the differentiation and consistency of the centers by targeting visitors of the Wood Cultural Experience Center and identifying the contributors to the visit and their preferences per facility. Most of the multidimensional scaling methods for positioning settings use two dimensions for comparative analysis to facilitate interpretation (Kang et al., 1999). This study selected similar facilities to the centers in terms of leisure activities and educational functions as the research targets. In order to identify the properties of the research targets, this study chose nine important properties that facilities have in common or different from each other based on the literature review: naturalness, accessibility, price level (experience cost), escape from daily life or recreation, experiential learning or observation, health promotion, preservation of the natural environment, things to see/things to enjoy, and friendship promotion, and the study was performed using the procedure shown in Fig. 1.

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Fig. 1. Research design for property analysis of the Wood Cultural Experience Center.
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2.2. Questionnaire composition

The questionnaire in this study consists of four parts as shown in Table 1. First, it consists of seven items regarding the research targets: gender, age, occupation, cognitive path, characteristics of visit, number of uses, and purpose of visit. Second, it consists of nine items of flow derived from the literature review to analyze the contributors to the visit. Third, it aims at evaluating the preferences of facilities based on satisfaction via an ordinal scale (range: 1st place–3rd place). Finally, for the similarity analysis between the Wood Cultural Experience Center and similar facilities in terms of leisure activities and educational functions (e.g., Wood Cultural Experience Center, career experience center, youth training center, natural recreation forest, museum/exhibition hall, arboretum, city park, and amusement park), eight facilities were in pairs of two, and the similarity was evaluated based on a Likert 5-point scale (1 = very similar, 2 = similar, 3 = neutral, 4 = dissimilar, 5 = very dissimilar).

Table 1. Wood culture experience center survey contents
Classification Details Scale
Personal information Questionnaire gender, age, occupation, cognitive path, visit characteristics, number of uses, purpose of visit Nominal
Visit factors Naturalness Friendship Nominal, ratio
Nine item
① Naturalness ② Accessibility ③ Price level (experience cost) ④ Escape and recreation ⑤ Experiential learning and observation ⑥ Health promotion ⑦ Preservation of natural environment ⑧ Things to see/enjoy ⑨ Promotion of friendship
Satisfaction Wood culture experience center Career experience center Youth training center Natural recreation forest Rank
( )ranking ( )ranking ( )ranking ( )ranking
Museum/exhibition hall Arboretum City park Amusement park
( )ranking ( )ranking ( )ranking ( )ranking
Similarity Classification Very similar Commonly Totally different Likert 5-point
Wood culture Experience center ↔ Career experience center
·
·
City park ↔ amusement park
Total 8 Pairs of contrasts
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2.3. Data collection and analysis method

The most basic principle of the multidimensional scaling method is to visually express the given data in a space with potential dimensions derived from the data, and to evaluate attributes of targets to be evaluated by using a matrix of similarity or dissimilarity and representing them based on the concept of distance in dimensional space. These attributes include preference and attribute evaluation data, and a vector model is employed to derive the direction and ideal point of the coordinates.

The sample of this study consists of those who are older than 20 years old, and are aware of the Wood Cultural Experience Centers; the survey method is convenience sampling; the survey (1,000 respondents) was conducted by personal interviews from April 1 to 30, 2022 at the Wood Cultural Experience Center in Jinju (Wolasan Woodland and Jinyangho Woodland) and the Wood Cultural Experience Center in Geoje. Specifically, researchers (nine persons interested) conducted the survey inside the Wood Cultural Experience Centers mainly through self-administered questionnaires and individual interviews.

The collected data were analyzed by the statistical analysis program SPSS (IBM Statistics 25, IBM, Armonk, NY, USA), and the statistical processing method was applied as follows. First, a frequency analysis was performed to analyze the demographic characteristics of the respondents. Second, reliability analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed to identify the internal reliability and validity of the variable, contributors to the visit. Third, descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to identify the normal distribution per facility. Fourth, the Kruskal, Young, Sheperd, Togerson (KYST) analysis was performed to identify similarities among facilities, and a regression analysis was also conducted to examine attribute perceptions of the Wood Cultural Experience Centers.

KYST is the most widely utilized method among multidimensional scaling methods, showing the properties of targets to be evaluated in a two-dimensional space based on proximities regarding similarity or dissimilarity scales among evaluation targets, and identifying monotonic relationships using stress values. This study utilized a non-metric statistical method by Alscal to derive conclusions, by comprehensively combining the preferences of multiple respondents and expressing them per property on the perceptual map after representing the vectors of consumer preferences on the targets, subjects, and products to be evaluated, and product attributes on the spatial coordinates (Kim and Yoon, 2010).

3. RESULTS and DISCUSSION

3.1. Analysis of the current operation of Wood Cultural Experience Centers
3.1.1. Operation of Wood Cultural Experience Centers

The Wood Cultural Experience Centers located in each region aim to satisfy the demand for wood culture experience in nearby areas, and to build nationwide linkages among centers to enable Korean citizens to easily experience wood culture. Furthermore, the centers promote the excellence of wood through wood culture experiences and learning activities, create potential demand for wood usage, improve the quality of life of the people through more rest areas with forest culture, and contribute to regional development by fostering wood as a specialized regional tourism resource. The centers provide a space for residents to use and experience various wood cultures, and serve as a complex venue with diverse functions such as education, exhibition, experience, and leisure for residents in order to expand the bases for wood utilization and wood culture. There should be a plan to use the centers as spaces with multipurpose so that wood can be utilized in diverse areas from experience centers to daily life (Park and Choi, 2021).

As of January 2023, there are 50 Wood Cultural Experience Centers in operation in South Korea, and 10 centers are in preparation for construction. As for the current status of centers in operation per year, there were six centers in 2012, seven centers in 2013, eight centers in 2014, 15 centers in 2015, 18 centers in 2016, 24 centers in 2017, 32 centers in 2018, 36 centers in 2019, 39 centers in 2020, 44 centers in 2021, and 49 centers in 2022 (Korea Association of Wood Culture, 2019).

Table 2 shows the current status of the Wood Cultural Experience Centers in the central parts of the country; 25 centers are in operation or preparation for operation: one center in Incheon and Daejeon, respectively, four centers in Gyeonggi Province, six centers in Gangwon Province, and six centers in Chungcheong Province. Table 3 indicates the current status of the Wood Cultural Experience Centers in the southern part of the country; 29 centers are in operation and 4 centers are in preparation for operation: two centers in Daegu Metropolitan City, 13 centers in Jeolla Province, and 18 centers in Gyeongsang Province. Table 4 presents the current status of Jeju Island; one center is in operation and one center is in preparation for operation; a total of two centers have been constructed.

Table 2. Operation status of wood culture experience center in the central region
Province City/county Location Operating
Incheon Namdong-gu 238, Munemi-ro, Namdong-gu, Incheon (Incheon Grand Park) ‘17/04
Daejeon Jung-gu 190-1, Daedae-dong, Jung-gu, Daejeon ‘18/10
Gyeonggi province (4) Yongin 220 Choburi, Mohyeon-eup, Cheoin-gu, Yongin ‘15/04
Namyangju 47-4, Jidun-ro 307beon-gil, Sudong-myeon, Namyangju ‘18/03
Icheon Mogae Park-ro, Icheon ‘21/05
Anseong 185-39, Batty-ro, Goldmine-myeon, Anseong ‘22/07
Gangwon province (12) Hwacheon 288-1, Seojiri, Hanam-myeon, Hwacheon ‘13/07
Yangyang 507-2 Woli, Yangyang-eup, Yangyang ‘14/08
Cheorwon 5, Jikyongni-san, Galmal-eup, Cheorwon ‘17/10
Samcheok 893-46, Gangwonnambu-ro, Dogye-eup, Samcheok ‘18/03
Inje 52, Bibong-ro, Inje-eup, Inje ‘15/01
Yanggu 131, Sumgol-ro 310beon-gil, Dongmyeon, Yanggu ‘20/10
Jeongseon 16-6, Gwanghari, Jeongseon-eup, Jeongseon ‘22/12
Goseong 54, Gajin-ri Mountain, Jukwang-myeon, Goseong Under construction
Pyeongchang 340-2, Sangli, Pyeongchang-eup, Pyeongchang
Hongcheon 5-2, Gaeunri Mountain, Yeongguimi-myeon, Hongcheon
Hoengseong 529, Dugok-ri, Ucheon-myeon, Hoengseong
Inje 755-2, Wondae-ri, Inje-eup, Inje
Chungcheong province (7) Chungju 68, Mountain, Munseong-ri, Noeun-myeon, Chungju ‘12/03
Cheongju 20, Miwon-myeon, Sangdang-gu, Cheongju ‘08/03
Eumseong 461-74, White night road, Geumwang-eup, Eumwang ‘18/08
Geumsan 567-1, Geoncheon-ri, Nam-myeon, Geumsan ‘15/09
Cheongyang 704-21, Iron gapsan road, Daechi-myeon, Cheongyang ‘10/03
Gongju 222, Suwonji Park-gil, Gongju ‘16/07
Boryeong 251-8, Seongju-ri, Seongju-myeon, Boryeong ‘22/02
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Table 3. Operation status of wood culture experience center in southern regions
Province City/county Location Operating
Daegu (2) Dalseo 248, Apsan Belt-ro, Dalseo-gu, Daegu ‘21/12
Dalseo 342, Hwaam-ro, Dalseo-gu, Daegu (Natural recreation forest) ‘21/07
Jeolla province (13) Muju 607, Chilyeon-ro, Anseong-myeon, Muju ‘16/11
Jangsu 778, Banghwadong-ro, Bunam-myeon, Jangsu ‘15/11
Imsil 96, Saseon 2-gil, Gwanchon-myeon, Imsil ‘17/06
Hwasun 659, Yumaro, Four-plane Division, Hwasun ‘16/06
Jangheung 180, Woodland-gil, Jangheung-eup, Jangheung ‘09/07
Goheung 1306, Podu Ujuro, Goheung ‘15/01
Yeongam 1207-1, Seogurim-ri, Gunmyeon, Yeongam ‘15/09
Gurye 366-1, Hyogok-ri, Gurye ‘18/06
Gwangyang 991-3, Chusan-ri, Okryong-myeon, Gwangyang ‘18/05
Mokpo 271-2, Jukgyo-dong, Mokpo (Yudalsan) ‘21/08
Suncheon 1767-7, Yeosun-ro, Haelong-myeon, Suncheon ‘23/01
Muju 153-36, Muhak-ro, Muju-eup, Muju Under construction
Jeongeup 541 Ssangam-dong, Jeongeup
Gyeongsang province (18) Bonghwa 151, Gyeong-ro, Bongseong-myeon, Bonghwa ‘11/12
Yeongyang 2394-70, Jaeil-ro, Ilwol-myeon, Yeongyang ‘17/02
Yecheon 2142, Dohyoja-ro, Hyoja-myeon, Yecheon ‘19/03
Sangju 3, Seongjubong-ro, Euncheok-myeon, Sangju ‘19/06
Yeongcheon 49-25, Yipsuk-ri Mountain, Hwabuk-myeon, Yeongcheon ‘19/04
Uiseong 1505, Geumseonghyeonseo, Chunsan-myeon, Uiseong ‘22/03
Changwon 507, Tianja-ro, Jinhai-gu, Changwon ‘09/03
Gimhae 5-49, Kanto-ro 27beon-gil, Gimhae ‘15/11
Geoje 325, Geojejungang-ro, Dong-myeon, Geoje ‘21/07
Jinju 139, Dongsan-ri (wolgasan woodland), Jinseong-myeon, Jinju ‘18/04
Jinju 478, Panmun-dong (jinyangho woodland), Jinju ‘22/01
Geochang 487, Songgye-ro, Wicheon-myeon, Geochang ‘17/07
Hadong 286-1, Mt. Seori, Hadong ‘18/04
Hamyang 88, Gangbyeon-ro, Myeon, in Hamyang ‘19/09
Hapcheon 301, Kahori, Yongju-myeon, Hapcheon ‘20/05
Yeongdeok 26-5, Changpo-ri, Yeongdeok-eup, Yeongdeok Under construction
Changnyeong 65, Gamri Mountain, Goam-myeon, Changnyeong
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Table 4. Operation status of the Wood Culture Experience Centers in Jeju Island
Province City/county Location Operating
Jeju (2) Seogwipo 1487-73, Namjo-ro, Pyoseon-myeon, Seogwipo ‘17/08
Seogwipo Gulmae Ecological Park, Chilsimni Park Under construction
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3.1.2. Current status of Wood Cultural Experience Center usage and experiences

Fig. 2 indicates the current status of the annual number of visitors and visitors with woodworking experience. It shows a gradual increase until 2019 in terms of the current status. In 2019, the total number of visitors to all 39 Wood Cultural Experience Centers was 8.41 million, and the total number of visitors with woodworking experience was 900,000. The number of experience centers increased by approximately 2.4 times from 15 in 2015 to 36 centers in 2019; the number of visitors increased by around 1.3 times from approximately 1.25 million in 2014 to about 1.64 million in 2019. Such an increase in visitors can be due to the higher number of Wood Cultural Experience Centers that have been constructed. The number of visitors with woodworking experience also showed an increasing trend until 2019, with a significant increase of approximately 5.9 times compared to the 2015 level. The ratio of the number of visitors participating in woodworking experience to all visitors gradually increased from 3.32% in 2015 to 7.34%, 8.60%, 11.70%, and 13.36% from 2016 to 2019 (Korea Association of Wood Culture, 2019).

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Fig. 2. Visitor status of wood culture experience center by year.
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On the other hand, from 2020 onwards, the numbers of visitors and visitors with woodworking experience decreased by 62.11% and 70.20% year-on-year due to COVID-19, but despite the prolonged COVID-19, the numbers increased by 35.29% and 54.79% year-on-year in 2021, indicating an overall recovery trend. These findings indicate higher recovery rates compared to the findings of Kwon and Park (2021), which analyzed the status of visitors to main tourist attractions after COVID-19, and showed an average recovery rate of visitors per facility (22.5%). Such a finding indicates that the type with less impact from COVID-19 is the “nature and ecological environment type” with a higher recovery rate than the previous year in 2020 (Choi and Kim, 2021).

Fig. 3 shows that the annual revenue from visitors with woodworking experience to the Wood Cultural Experience Centers tended to increase until 2019 in line with fluctuations in the number of visitors, and then after COVID-19 in 2020, there was a decreasing and increasing tendency. The annual revenue showed the same tendency as the annual number of visitors with woodworking experience.

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Fig. 3. Experience amount of wood culture experience center visitor status by year.
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3.1.3. Direction for Wood Cultural Experience Center operation policy

The importance of wood usage has been emphasized due to responses to climate change, and the usage has been considered an important issue from a national perspective; Korea Forest Service enacted the Act on the Sustainable Use of Timbers for more active usage of wood. Every year, the Korea Forest Service measures and announces the wood culture index, which is an index that measures and quantifies policies for promoting wood utilization and wood culture, social infrastructure, and levels of using wood by people through legislation. The wood culture index has shown an annual increase from 2016 to 2019; recently, in 2022, the national average of the index was 62.0 points, an increase of 1.6 points from the previous year, but the index on perception of wood and wood culture was 43.9 points, which dropped by 0.7 points compared to the previous year, because social infrastructure and policies could not support the high interest of the general public in wood (Korea Association of Wood Culture, 2022). Such a tendency is assumed attributable to the fact that despite a relatively favorable social atmosphere for wood usage and woodworking activities, there are few opportunities to enjoy wood culture in reality, resulting in a lack of awareness and foundation for wood culture. Thus, it is necessary to discover various wood culture resources through a systematic classification of wood culture, and relevant case studies, prepare basic materials to establish promotion strategies enabling people to enjoy wood culture, and provide alternatives to form social consensus and facilitate wood culture. Han and Lee (2021b) conducted a survey on necessary measures to popularize wood cultural resources; the highest response rate was found in strengthening the promotion of wood culture (32.6%), followed by human resource training and infrastructure support (25.6%), development of related content (24.6%), and establishment of wood culture-related policies (16.8%). They also suggested the need to develop various content and promote the content to the public by establishing wood culture-related policies.

3.2. Positioning research for Wood Cultural Experience Centers
3.2.1. Frequency analysis of demographic and general characteristics of respondents

Table 5 shows the frequency analysis results based on the survey of 1,000 visitors for the positioning of the Wood Cultural Experience Centers.

Table 5. Frequency analysis results on demographic and general characteristics of respondents
Classification Frequency (n) Ratio (%)
Gender Male 363 36.3
Female 637 63.7
Age 20s 156 15.6
30s 441 44.1
40s 256 25.6
50s 120 12.0
Over 60s 27 27.0
Occupation Daycare/kindergarten teacher 228 22.8
Elementary school teacher 179 17.9
Middle/high school teacher 91 9.1
Housewife 145 14.5
Office/administrative positions 158 15.8
Technical/service positions 104 10.4
Self-employment 55 5.5
Others (students, etc.) 40 4.0
Cognitive Know 989 98.9
I do not know 11 1.1
Visit characteristics Individual 723 72.3
Organization 277 27.7
Cognitive path TV, newspapers 46 4.6
Home page 152 15.2
Blog 301 30.1
SNS 181 18.1
Invite people around you 267 26.7
Others (events, etc.) 53 5.3
Number of uses More than once a week 121 12.1
More than once a month 375 37.5
More than once a year 253 25.3
First visit 251 25.1
Purpose of visit Woodworking experience 387 38.7
Forest commentary 113 11.3
Toddler forest experience 84 8.4
Weekend special experience 34 3.4
View exhibits 98 9.8
Watch a movie 5 5.0
Forest walk 42 4.2
Play equipment 237 23.7
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As for gender, more females were surveyed with 363 males and 637 females, and as for age, respondents in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s or older accounted for 15.6%, 44.1%, 25.6%, 12.0%, and 27.0%, respectively, showing that respondents in their 30s showed the highest rate. In terms of the occupation of the respondents, the highest percentage of respondents were found in daycare/kindergarten teachers 22.8%, followed by elementary school teachers, office/administrative workers, full-time housewives, technical/service workers, middle and high school teachers, self-employed, and others (e.g., students, etc.). As for the visit characteristics, there were 723 individuals and 277 groups. In terms of cognitive path, the following channels were highly used: blogs accounted for 30.1% and recommendations from others accounted for 26.7%. The highest number of visits was more than once a month at 37.5%, followed by more than once a year or more, first visit, and more than once a week. The main purpose of visiting the Wood Cultural Experience Centers was to experience wood and woodworking (38.7%), followed by amusement facilities (23.7%), explanation of forests (11.3%), exhibition viewing (9.8%), forest experience for infants (8.4%), movie watching (5.0%), forest walk (4.2%), and weekend special experience (3.4%).

3.2.2. Similarity analysis (Kruskal-Young-Shepard-Torgerson) among facilities with leisure activities and educational functions

Similarity analysis refers to identifying the position of each brand in consumers’ minds. This study created a perceptual map based on the relative positions of recreational activities and educational functions of eight facilities. In other words, respondents were asked to evaluate the pairwise comparisons of similarity for each of the n(n–1) / 2 pairwise comparisons (28) of the eight facilities based on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = very similar, 2 = similar, 3 = neutral, 4 = dissimilar, 5 = very dissimilar), and Table 6 showed the KYST analysis results.

Table 6. Average similarity matrix and competition coordinates
Classification 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Wood Culture Experience Center 0.00
Career experience center 2.57 0.00
Youth training center 3.32 1.99 0.00
Natural recreation forest 2.37 4.20 3.07 0.00
Museum/exhibition hall 2.97 3.58 4.18 3.31 0.00
Arboretum 3.02 4.17 4.14 1.59 3.81 0.00
City park 3.87 4.18 3.89 2.03 4.42 2.41 0.00
Amusement park 3.97 4.32 4.31 3.51 4.41 4.15 3.81 0.00
Classification Dimension 1 Dimension 2 STRESS RSQ
Wood culture experience center 0.553 –0.588 0.159 0.809
Career experience center 1.5282 0.271
Youth training center 1.157 0.784
Natural recreation forest –0.745 0.207
Museum/exhibition hall 0.616 1.517
Arboretum –1.113 0.716
City park –1.403 0.257
Amusement park –0.747 1.716

Stress = 0.159, RSQ (regression sum of sqaure) = 0.809, average by Kruskal standards.

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In the empirical study on the image positioning of the Wood Cultural Experience Centers, a total of 1,000 visitors to the centers were surveyed about the image positioning of each forest resort, and based on the collected data, the image attribute space map was created through the KYST analysis, as shown in Fig. 4. When facilities with high similarity are generally located close to each other on the positioning map, it indicates that their relationships are highly competitive, whereas brands that are relatively far away from each other show dissimilarity, which can be interpreted that their relationships are not highly competitive. In this sense, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the Wood Cultural Experience Center has strong competition with the natural recreation forest in terms of naturalness; in terms of experiential observation, it also has strong competition with the career experience center and youth training center, but it has a weak competition with other similar facilities because those facilities are relatively far away.

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Fig. 4. Perception of similarity among all respondents.
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Fig. 5. Attribute space of all respondents.
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3.2.3. Positioning analysis of facilities with leisure activities and educational functions

In the overall preference survey that evaluated the preferences of facilities based on satisfaction via ordinal scale (range: 1st place–3rd place), the Wood Cultural Experience Center was the highest with 714 respondents (23.80%), followed by natural recreation forest (20.27%), arboretum (15.73%), museum/exhibition hall (10.67%), Career experience center (8.00%), youth training center (7.60%), city park (7.47%), and amusement park (6.47%).

Based on the results of the attribute space map shown in Fig. 5, the overall positioning analysis results per target were derived, as shown in Table 7. The Wood Cultural Experience Centers were positively perceived in terms of such attributes as naturalness, experiential learnings or recreation, and preservation of the natural environment, whereas they were negatively recognized in terms of accessibility, escape from daily life, and things to see. In particular, the Centers were perceived very positively in terms of the attribute of experiential observation, which can be interpreted as the result of high investment in facilities and operations to meet the higher demand for group experiences such as experiential learning, creative learning, and excursions. From this perspective, it is necessary to develop programs that can provide diverse experience opportunities for the differentiation and consistency of the Wood Cultural Experience Centers. As for the recent trends from the perspective of ensuring the safety of visitors, various types of experiences should be developed and secured, such as one-person furniture making, wood carving, camping equipment making, and pet product making. Such activities can also contribute to securing profit sources for the sustainable management of the Wood Cultural Experience Centers from a business perspective.

Table 7. Positioning analysis results of similar facilities
Classification Similar facilities Positive attributes Negative attributes Overall preference [n (%)]
Wood culture experience center Career experience center ① Naturalness
⑤ Experiential learning and observation
⑦ Preservation of natural
② Accessibility
④ Escape and recreation
⑧ Things to see/enjoy
714 (23.80)
Career experience center Youth training center ⑤ Experiential learning and observation
⑧ Things to see/enjoy
⑨ Promotion of friendship
① Naturalness
② Accessibility
⑥ Health promotion
240 (8.00)
Youth training center Career experience center ⑤ Experiential learning and observation
⑧ Things to see/enjoy
⑨ Promotion of friendship
① Naturalness
② Accessibility
⑥ Health promotionl
228 (7.60)
Natural recreation forest Arboretum ① Naturalness
② Accessibility
⑥ Health promotion
⑤ Experiential learning and observation
⑧ Things to see/enjoy
⑨ Promotion of friendship
608 (20.27)
Museum/exhibition hall Youth training center ④ Escape and recreation
⑧ Things to see/enjoy
⑨ Promotion of friendship
① Naturalness
② Accessibility
③ Price level
320 (10.67)
Arboretum Natural recreation forest ① Naturalness
② Accessibility
⑥ Health promotion
⑤ Experiential learning and observation
⑧ Things to see/enjoy
⑨ Promotion of friendship
472 (15.73)
City park Arboretum ① Naturalness
② Accessibility
③ Price level
⑤ Experiential learning and observation
⑧ Things to see/enjoy
⑨ Promotion of friendship
224 (7.47)
Amusement park Arboretum ④ Escape and recreation
⑧ Things to see/enjoy
⑨ Promotion of friendship
① Naturalness
② Accessibility
③ Price level
194 (6.47)
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Next, it is necessary to actively employ the Wood Cultural Experience Center’s comparative advantages from naturalness and preservation of the natural environment, that is, its outstanding scenery and excellent carbon neutrality education compared to other similar facilities. In other words, centers can be positioned as the most spectacular destinations while enjoying the best forests, and simultaneously, the location for education and experience on carbon neutrality. They also need to be positioned as the best place to experience nature as much as possible, and simultaneously, preserve the natural environment.

Finally, resetting should be considered to compensate for negative attributes of accessibility, escape from daily life or recreation, and things to see/enjoy. It is also important to develop a program for connecting surrounding facilities via local infrastructure, to review constructing spaces and facilities for various things to see and play facilities, and to manage vacationers and those who particularly want to commune with nature.

4. CONCLUSIONS

This study was conducted to examine the current status of the Wood Cultural Experience Centers and to suggest a successful operation model through positioning analysis of similar facilities with leisure activities and educational functions, and the following results were derived.

First, there are 49 Wood Cultural Experience Centers in operation (as of 2022). The number of visitors and visitors with woodworking experience has continuously increased, and there is an overall trend of recovery after the decline due to the onset of the COVID-19. The annual revenue from visitors with woodworking experience showed the same trend as the annual number of visitors with woodworking experience. Second, as a result of the similarity analysis (KYST) of facilities with recreational activities and educational functions, centers have competition with natural recreation forests in terms of naturalness, and they have competition with career experience centers and youth training centers in terms of experiential observation. Third, the result of analyzing positioning via an attribute space map indicates that the Wood Cultural Experience Centers were positively recognized in terms of such attributes as naturalness, experiential learning or recreation, and preservation of the natural environment, whereas they were negatively perceived in terms of accessibility, escape from daily life, and things to see. Fourth, the entire preference survey showed that the Wood Cultural Experience Center was the most preferred, followed by the natural recreation forest, arboretum, museum/exhibition hall, career experience center, youth training center, city park, and amusement park. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and secure various types of experiences for the successful operation of the Wood Cultural Experience Centers, actively utilize outstanding scenery and excellent carbon neutrality education, and review constructing spaces and facilities for various things to see and play facilities. It is also important to develop and operate a systematic program to manage the program for a long time at the Wood Cultural Experience Centers. The entire program should be divided into three programs for weekdays, weekends, and play experience, so that it can be effectively operated without gaps.

CONFLICT of INTEREST

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Not applicable.

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