From seascape to memoryscape: tourism and the reframing of living heritage

Marine Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), despite its living and transregional character, remains underexamined in heritage and tourism research. This study examines how Marine ICH is reproduced and transformed under tourism development and policy change, focusing on Yeongdo haenyeo. It integrates collective and cultural memory theories into a four-stage framework—Formation, Re-enactment, Transformation, and Objectification—and applies it through preliminary inquiry, 26 semi-structured interviews, and field observation. The findings show that Yeongdo haenyeo maintained cultural continuity after migration through diving practice, dialect retention, and communal rhythms, challenging assumptions that migration erodes ICH. They also reveal how tourism and state intervention commodify haenyeo and selectively institutionalize memory about them. The study critiques governance structures that treat haenyeo as vendors rather than heritage bearers and proposes integrated approaches linking Marine ICH with marine heritage systems, memory-based governance, and targeted public funding.