earticle

영어

The year 2020 marked the 70th anniversary of the Korean War and the 67th anniversary of the establishment of the DMZ. This study aims to analyze the process of tourism resources development of the DMZ Region based on the tourism policy of the past Korean governments (nine administrations), focusing on the path dependency theory of the historical institutionalism. Considering the theoretical and practical classification methods together, tourism resources were classified as security tourism resources, eco-tourism resources, peace tourism resources, historical-cultural tourism resources. The analysis was applied by documentary research method and case study research method. The findings of the research identified that firstly, the period between the early 1980s and late 1990s, which is the path formative phase, was centered on security tourism. Secondly, the period between the late 1990s and late 2000s, which could be categorized as the path extensional phase, expanded to ecological and peace tourism. Thirdly, in the period between the late 2000s and late 2010s, which could be classified as the path consolidated. It stretched out its boundaries, linking and patterning ecological, peace, security, historical-cultural tourism. This shows that the process of tourism resources development of the DMZ Region based on the tourism policy of the past Korean governments has been institutionalized through path dependency.