Dolmen UNESCO Sites Are Tourism Attractions in Korea: Semiotics of Sustainability for Cultural Heritage

Dolmens are neolithic burial artifacts scattered across the Korean landscape. In 2000, they were inscribed as UNESCO heritage sites, and they have been developed as sustainable cultural tourism attractions in Gochang, Hwasun, and Ganghwa. In this study, social semiotics using fieldwork was conducted with the employment of some traditional tourism theoretical themes. It was found that when only a single theoretical metric is used, there are too many contradictory interests and messages involved in the three sites, confusing national identity, heritage, and tourism development. But semiotic analysis reveals that nuanced articulations of denotative signs with their many connotative signifiers enable a unique chaordic Korean management style built on embracing paradox in tourism attractions, particularly in terms of sustainability. Culture is the foundation for the sustainability of monuments and heritage sites. Findings show that the Dolmen UNESCO sites maintain a sustainable identity through government support and represent a narrative that describes an unbroken link to a neolithic Korean past as well as a diversified framing of heritage in community-based tourism attractions.