Island is a unique geographic feature where inland and marine environment coexist, and its isolated ecosystem is fragile and distinct. Due to the uniqueness of its isolated environment, islands are very popular destinations in tour industry. Many small island nations are heavily relied on the revenue from tourism industry. However, at the same time, unplanned and reckless tourism development causes significant environmental and social problems in those small island nations.
Until now, environmental impact of the island tourism development in Korea was not that much severe because the country was focusing on developing important infrastructure first and there was low demand for island tourism. However, as the national GDP is growing and the demand for marine sports activity is rising, many island resort development plans are proposed and planned from private company and local government, especially in the south-west seashore of Korea peninsula. Unfortunately, these proposed island resort development plans are not coordinated with government sectors and local residents, but are planned independently by private companies and then aggregated into a local tourism development plan. Thus, there is an urgent need to supervise unplanned island tourism development and enhance the environmental aspects of the island tourism development.
This study summarizes the current status of tourism development in islands, examine the cases of the island tourism development, the problems of the tourism plan itself and the tourism planning process. The environmental aspects of the island tourism d