Subjects, Spaces, and Experiences of Domestic Tourism in 1980s South Korea: Analyzing Policy Shifts and Tourist Narratives in Travel Magazines

South Korea experienced a rise in domestic tourism in the 1980s. This change coincided with the new political tendency to utilize the nation’s ‘individual authority’ (jayul) and the rise in leisure activities in South Korea. This study aims to explore domestic tourism during this period, considering both the changes in tourism policy and the public’s tourist experiences. It particularly analyzes how the government identified the subject and space of tourism, and how the public reconstructed their tourist experiences on newly established travel magazines. This study argues that tourism in 1980s South Korea appeared as an intersection of the government’s intention to control the nation’s leisure activities and the public’s desire to travel. While the government included the nation in the subject of tourism and developed tourist sites via the ‘social tourism’ (gungmin gwangwang) policy, the public represented themselves as a subject of tourism by expressing their tourist experiences in travel magazines. By analyzing archival documents and texts in travel magazine reader columns, it approached society from the perspective of everyday life.