Leisure port development in the Incheon area: concepts and benchmarks

Abstract

In concert with an ambitious national agenda that emphasizes free trade and globalization, Incheon Metropoitan City is taking the first steps toward reinventing itself to become a twenty-first century "Pentaport" with integrated Seaport, Airport, Technoport, Business Port, and Leisure Port components. The Incheon Pentaport transformation-projected to be complete by 2020-will entail significant industrial, sociological, and institutional modification. Leisure Port objectives can be achieved through responsible planning attuned to the ideal of sustainable development and by empirical studies of Incheon tourism and leisure dynamics. International benchmarks of leisure port success are found in Sydney, Australia; Vancouver, Canada: and San Diego, USA, among seven other cosmopolitan vessels and yacht in the Incheon region are encouraging. Incheon Leisure Port development of tem amenity destinations will require equal and multidisciplinary attention to questions of tourism design and tourism impacts. Important issues will concern environmental quality, clean shipping practices, the proper balance of modern and traditional amenities and attractions, trade-offs of cultural honogenety and cultural diversity, and creative destination branding and marketing, among others