The Korea Tourism Organization warns that Korea may be losing its tourist appeal. From the Korea Times:
A survey showed that 44.4 percent of foreigners visited Korea for travel and 42.7 percent came for business in 2003.
The ratio, however, was reversed in 2005. About 42.3 percent of visitors were tourists and 43.7 percent were businesspeople, the survey conducted by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) said.
The change shows that Korea is losing its tourist “appeal,” indicating the need to develop new attractions, both tangible and intangible.
The problems?
Korea has no Rocky Mountains, Niagara Falls nor Palace of Versailles. Tourist attractions such as Insa-dong, Myeong-dong and Namdaemun market have remained the same for decades _ insufficient to bring repeat visitors.
Building resorts like in Guam or the Philippines are not a viable solution due to Korea’s weather that includes a chilly winter, experts say.
The piece mentions some ways Korea might be able to boost its tourism — welcoming large-scale entertainment facilities, promoting intangible attractions and developing niche markets like medical tourism. None of these are bad ideas, IMHO.
For what it’s worth, I really like the KTO’s “Korea, Sparkling” commercial (see below). Heck, even last week, somebody on the Tony Kornheiser Show was talking quite positively about it… before the inevitable dogmeat crack.
Promoting Korea as a tourist destination is difficult. Part of this is a function of geography — see Belgium. I’m sure Belgium is a lovely place with much to recommend it as a tourist destination, but if you’re going to Europe, you’re probably going to visit France, Germany, Britain or even the Netherlands before you give Belgium a go. And at least Belgium can get the “just passing through” crowd, which Korea, for obvious reasons, can’t.
And yes, I think it’s fair to say that compared to China or even Japan, Korea doesn’t have the “wow” sites that would draw tourists. Ironically, this may be a function of one of Korea’s tourist strengths — its traditional culture. Confucianists don’t like show-offs. Korean architecture, for example, has long placed importance on modesty and blending in with nature. Even Korea’s palaces are intentionally unpretentious. Korean gardens are designed to look, well, not like gardens. This is a form of architecture that’s meant to be experienced — to be lived in — not admired at a glance. Tourists, however, are sightseers, which obviously favors places like the Forbidden City or Kinkaku-ji over Buseok-sa Temple (my pick for Korea’s most precious piece of architecture) or even the Changdeokdung Palace.
Korea does have a lot going for it, of course — the natural landscape is beautiful (although generally not dramatic in the tourist sense), the transportation system in well-developed, accommodation is cheap (as long as you stay away from the major hotels), and Koreans are, generally speaking, a friendly and helpful lot. Korea’s proximity to Japan and China obviously helps with drawing tourists from those markets.
And for those tourists able to approach things with a seonbi mind, the possibilities are endless.
53 Comments
It doesn’t help that many of the palaces and temples are knock-offs of the genuine articles destroyed by the Japanese.
Ironically, mega-package tours, including stays in Japan and both Chinas might be the way to go. Comparing Japanese and Korean architecture in itself is an intriguing prospect–one Koreans would probably find insulting.
Hey, full-contact duelling females tourist guides! “Over here, we have the Korean-inspired temple–blah blah blah!” No, you slut! It’s Japanese idea!” etc.
“Loosing” is not “losing”!
My bad.
This is an old topic on Marmots…anyway, despite the criticism of Pyongchang as an Olympic Games host the whole idea Sanshineon mentioned about marketing the winter resorts to other Asians is a great idea.
Temple stays have gotten some exposure in the NYT and LAT, so why not promote that more to Westerners?
Otherwise as people often say here there isn’t much of interest to the average tourist and the nightlife is abysmal, not to mention most nightclubs and bars are very foreigner-unfriendly.
Also, and it’s maybe a small thing, but why can’t they close off Insadong to traffic? What’s the deal with that? And stop destroying all the tea shops with souvenir stores that all sell the same thing? Maybe that’s a lost cause.
Belgium has beer.
This is true.
There’s no doubt Korea has a lot to offer and it is almost criminal how unrecognized it is as a tourist destination. Although I selfishly admit it makes living here more pleasant. However, for the sake of foregone tourism revenues, I wish Korea much success in increasing inbound tourism. And that is a very good commercial — much better than the previous one.
The commercial won’t mean much of anything to people who don’t already know Korean history (they’ll think the tightrope walker is a circus act and the break dancers, uh, are copying African-American culture). It has nothing to induce people to come here. It needs some kind of positioning–who are they trying to attract? What can you do here? And they have to decide on one brand identity and stick with it for a few years.
Forget the winter sports… I think if Korea really develops its hiking/mountain [insert activity] industry, it can have a real nice niche in the international tourism. After all, majority of the country’s landscape is mountainous ^^.
Marketing Korea as a package with Japan and China appears to be the way to go. China is a long way from both Europe and North America, so tagging on a few days in Korea might just draw enough of a crowd if the lay-over is either a freebie, or inexpensive. Yes, Korea has temples and palaces. Who cares if they were rebuilt. It also has the DMZ, which attracts its share of tourists. But it also has shopping! Yes, a lot of items can be purchased cheaper in China, but the Yongsan electronics market does have some great bargains, and quality Korean celedon does have its aficionados. Maybe the “See Korea” pitch should be adjusted to a “Stop buy Korea” (sic) pitch. And yes, the Korea Sparkling advert does do a very decent job of pitching Korea. Not to forget the KAL limo service to and from the airport which is convenient, comfortable, and extremely economical when compared to other major Asian cities.
maybe it’s just gaining business appeal? (ok… unlikely)
y’know, dogmeat would be a niche market. It certainly was one of those sure to do things on our list when my brother stopped over this year… you could add live octopus/clams and whale meat to the list too. There are all sort of tasty critter that are legal to eat here.
I think bum and michael have called it.
The winter tourism by SE Asians has done well, but I think for many of them it’s the one-time novelty of snow and skiing rather than a lifetime hobby and repeat visits. But to an avid skier such as myself it kinda sucks to see more kamikazes on boards added to already overcrowded and unsafe slopes. Thailand and India have done exceptionally well with medical tourism, and in addition to being much less expensive than Korea they both offer some incredible places to convalesce. But if Korea can attract more SE Asian “skiers” it may be able to boost medical tourism unintentionally.
@lirelou, Korea marketed itself as a “shoppers’ paradise” from the ’80s through the mid ’90s, but as costs and IP protection obligations increased (somewhat less for the latter) tourism dropped. And let’s be frank, the primary target of that campaign was groups of Japanese men. I think that game has pretty much seen its heyday.
Who suggested Korea should market itself as a health spa destination for women (along with plastic surgery)?
Unfortunately, for Seoul, the reforms needed to make South Korea a tourist attraction are also the reforms needed to keep South Koreans living in South Korea!Education, labor reform (hey, look honey, it’s a really lame taekwondo match in the streets!), and regulatory reform would affect the same restaurants, stores, and businesses needed to attract tourists as South Koreans need to create a viable economy foreigners respect. We don’t need to have this conversation—South Koreans should be devising ideas to attract people, and have the chance to put them in action. Right now, the mentality is, how can I sit here suffering and milk the evil world around me for sustenance! I’m sorry, but tourism is not a development aid package.
#5 beat me to it. Belgium is the mecca of beer worshippers. Those who have made the pilgrimage are allowed to add the prefix “bier” to their names.
“”Even Korea’s palaces are intentionally unpretentious. Korean gardens are designed to look, well, not like gardens.”"
Sounds like it would make a good future blog project, perhaps a comparative study with traditional African palaces and gardens.
“And Koreans are, generally speaking, a friendly and helpful lot.”
Love the qualifier.
African gardens and palaces are nice.
@ baltimoron,
Gobs of Japanese women have been coming here for a while to enjoy spa tourism. Interestingly this didn’t develop from a KNTO push or marketing blitz; Japanese females increasingly came here for shopping or “Winter Sonata tourism” (again, not a KNTO creation), saw what was offered to the locals, and partook.
Don’t know about the plastic surgery, though.
Last night I was watching some news program about how regular Koreans were opening mom-and-pop sized restaurants, guest houses, etc. in Cambodia and Vietnam.
The barriers to entry are minimal.
I still remember poor Uncle Joe’s Hamburgers. Foreigner had huge hassles running a burger and ice cream joint outside Itaewon. The attitude was very much “how dare he make money from our Korea”. And this happened when Korea was well beyond 3rd world status.
Those of you who’ve traveled to SE Asia probably have noted how much more liberalized they are with food and services. Makes for a pleasant experience. One that’s repeated. Here you get gouged if you want two eggs and toast. (BTW, who here remembers Korean “morning coffee”?)
Yes, it’s much freer than once was, but the kickoff was well after it needed to be.
Contrast SE Asia tourism to Korea’s and for the most part SE Asia is steadily upward whilst Korea’s roller coasters.
“I still remember poor Uncle Joe’s Hamburgers.”
So do I. There was one in Hongdae. Funny how they seemed to be more about ice cream than burgers.
“Here you get gouged if you want two eggs and toast.”
If you can actually find it being served, you will be gouged!
seouldout:
Thanks for the assist.
It just goes to show Korea can’t make just make itself popular. There’s a bit of luck and serendipity involved. And, just good old people power!
“As Japanese travelers make up about 40 percent of total visitors to Korea…”
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww.....ryCode=117
The above point stuck in my head from the first article in this series. As the single most voracious consumer of Korean tourism, wouldn’t it benefit the Korean tourism industry if Koreans quit trying to irritate the Japanese people at every conceivable corner?
The easiest people to sell are your existing customers. Korea could continue to spend 5 or ten times in marketing per person to get someone from another country here or they could elect to bite their tongue and enjoy the financial rewards of an increase in Japanese tourists.
Who is the girl dancing in the club portion near the end of the Korea, Sparkling commercial??
I don’t know how much stock I would put into any of those numbers in the first place. My friend and I were waiting for our flight in the airport when asked to fill out that survey. We started filling it out but stopped when it was obvious that it didn’t apply to us because we live here and are not tourists. The guy told us to fill it out anyway and “guess at what you don’t know.”
The survey asked for the reason of our visit which included- and I am not making this up- Korea’s four distinct seasons. This was of course in addition to a variety of other activities, but I couldn’t take it seriously after that.
I think that commercial looks really cool, too, but that ad seems to be focused towards a very young demographic, what with the breakdancers and the girl in the club. Are they still going after winter sports? They need to either pick a group of people that they’re trying to attract and stick to it, or they need to develop different angles for different demographics that they’re trying to attract.
And they need to make sure the proper people are filling out their surveys.
Are you saying the droves of French coming to Korea are marking the box for Japanese as some sort of cruel joke?
Re: micheal’s
“Also, and it’s maybe a small thing, but why can’t they close off Insadong to traffic? What’s the deal with that?”
I couldn’t agree more. It’s not like the cars can really get anywhere anyways, so why allow people-squishers in one of the most famous and enjoyable tourist foot districts in Korea ?
The last time I was there with cars driving^H^H^H^H^H^Hcreeping down the middle of the street while streams of pedestrians were confined to narrow sidewalks around the cars, I wanted to start walking on the bumper-to-bumper cars.
Speaking of cars mixing with pedestrians, how about enforcing a no-cars-on-the-sidewalk policy ? My wife was standing waiting for the bus on the sidewalk when she got honked at by a car driving on the sidewalk to take a shortcut !
I’m sure all of you have tons of stories of getting parts of your body run over or “brushed” by cars as you were legally in the crosswalk. I’ve almost gotten hit a few times myself by some jackass with no respect for pedestrians.
Cars + pedestrians == badness
If Korea wants more tourists, then it should stop focusing on development (uh, guys, it’s over-developed) and return to Confucian propriety. I’m tired of 빠리빠리.
“I think that commercial looks really cool, too, but that ad seems to be focused towards a very young demographic, what with the breakdancers and the girl in the club.”
Do people actually come here to see Korea’s legendary b-boys?
“I’m sure all of you have tons of stories of getting parts of your body run over or “brushed” by cars as you were legally in the crosswalk. I’ve almost gotten hit a few times myself by some jackass with no respect for pedestrians.”
Yep, and the English teacher with the forged degree goes to jail while these degenerates don’t get so much as a warning, let alone a ticket! Perhaps the police are be too overwhelemed with this summer’s rash of fan deaths to keep pedestrians safe.
Repeal the anti-prostitution ban, patchily enforced though it may be.
‘comparative study with traditional African palaces and gardens.’ dtln
could you give me some examples of afican palaces excluding egypt?
Bumfromkorea has a great idea. Seriously, SK could milk huge niche market potential by focusing on mountain hiking. The temples, restaurant enclaves, mountain spring water, manageable elevation changes, short distances to amenities (yeogwan/minbak, buses, search & rescue) even when deep in the wilderness, lack of predatory animals, and stunning vistas make for some sweet hiking.
Lirelou: Here in Vancouver, I’ve seen joint HK-SK tourism marketing sponsored by the KNTO and whatever the equivalent body is in Hong Kong.
Baltimoron (#1): Japanese temples have to be periodically rebuilt, too. It’s in the nature of these wooden buildings that they succumb to the ravages of fire and old age, and have to be rebuilt. In both Japan and South Korea, the tendency is to rebuild the replacement building as an exact replica of the original. Some buildings in both countries have been rebuilt 3 or 4 times, each time according to the exact same plan.
…Re hiking in Korea, needless to say, if this were to be seriously marketed, there would also need to be a concerted initiative to provide signage, maps, bus schedules, guidebooks and the like in English and possibly other languages (Chinese or Japanese, most likely), and to rate and list accomodation and restaurants in all these rural trailheads and waypoints for English-, Chinese-, or Japanese-speaking patrons….
…And a system of cross-country trails, perhaps based on the old Joseon-era trunk road system (e.g., the Yeongnam Daero that passed through Chungju and Mungyeong Saejae en route to Daegu and points south).
Man, this would have huge potential as something that SK would have a distinct competitive advantage in.
Korea has a nice mix of historical sites and scenic areas. None of them, however, are “on the map.” Rather than competing with better known Japan and China for mass package tourism, Korea should develop a niche market of experienced travelers looking for something off the beaten path. Forgo the noisy, glitzy commercials on North American television and spend advertising money on a sophisticated ad campaign that appeals to savvy travelers with a bit of cash to spend. Lure them with hands-on cultural experiences like food demos, meditation retreats, and lodging in traditional style homes. An abundance of activities like these already exist, but I don’t think they’re marketed sufficiently to international travelers. Compared to China, Korea is a much, much easier country to move around in. Well-heeled travelers want culture in comfort.
As for the shopping, Korea used to be a shopper’s paradise, but most of Korea’s soft goods export business has moved across the Yellow Sea. There is little in Korea that cannot be bought cheaper in North America.
Sonagi is right - Korea is not really attractive for the average mass package traveller as she sadly lacks the usual features of popular tourist destinations. Let these people instead visit Thailand, the Philippines etc.
Korean marketing campaigns should be directed at the experienced middle-aged tourist who has seen all the well-travelled destinations in Asia and now wants something off the beaten track. Many of these people are endowed with an above-average purchasing power and a willingness to put it to good use. For this group of travellers the country really has got something on offer…
I did a lot of bicycle touring in Korea in the late 1980s and early 1990s, camping occasionally but mostly staying at minbak. Covered the mountains of Kangwon, North Kyongsan, etc as well as did island hopping from Wando to Yosu in South Cholla.
Great scenery, manageable distances, robust and affordable food, streams and seas to swim in….
The only problem was a big one: Highly dangerous and careless drivers in large numbers.
Nearly lost a riding partner when one tour bus passed another on a blind corner and drove us off the road. That was 15+ years ago, but based on statistics and anecdotal evidence, the roads are not any safer now, I fear..
I think one big problem is that Korea is not a place that one goes to relax, so it is hard to sell as a vacation destination. No opportunties to sunbath by the pool or at the beach, no lazy wanderings in shorts, tank top and sandals, no poolside bars with cool,fruity drinks. The pace of everything is too fast to really relax and enjoy life. Hard to relax in business casual attire in Korea’s 90 degree summers. There is also a lack of tourist infrastructure; not enough destination resorts at places like Sorak-san or Kyungju that cater to international tourist tastes. If you stay in Seoul you have rather long bus journeys to get outside the city and back again and you wind up stuck with the tour company’s schedule. And last, it is comparatively expensive to travel around Korea, your money goes a lot farther in Thailand, Mexico or Portugal. I doubt that you will get more tourism until Koreans themselves learn to relax and develop a convivial tourist industry.
“I think one big problem is that Korea is not a place that one goes to relax….”
Given that my personal experience is time spent on long distance coaches and at the airport; staying with the in-laws; meeting friends; making the obligatory pilgrimage to Kyobo Books (and Seoul Selection on the next trip); and trying to squeeze in as much sightseeing as I can in between all that, “relax” and “vacation” are certainly not words that have gone together for me historically….
Oh, and did I mention consistently speaking in formal polite language in my barely adequate Seoul dialect with all my elder in-laws who are addressing me in Gyeongsang dialect? It’d be like a Korean ESL student at Oxford trying to get by in downtown Glasgow….
Re: comment 33-I have long fantasized about cycling as a transformative tourism paradigm for Korea, with longterm ramifications for all kinds of ancillary effects. In terms of this comment, and RK’s pet theme of temple visits and architecture, and the elements included in this comment about mountains, traffic and the sorts of laidback preferences more youthful tourists carry with them, I dream of a Korean Peninsula laced with two lane cycling tracks, lots of pullouts, sleeping/camping sheds, linking remote temple sites, avoiding areas of motorized traffic concentration, regular ly spaced supplies sources, etc.
I believe that it is inevitable that one day a country with much the same demographic and geographic and economic dimensions will declare as a public policy goal the intention to become the world’s most bicycle-friendly nation, devoting major resources to making it a reality. It will spawn a huge transformative movement globally to make the economic shift from hydrocarbon energy to food-driven muscle energy. Dozens, maybe hundreds of new inventions and designs and systems and infrastructure ideas and tourism options and industrial plant makeovers and civil and mechanical engineering solutions will appear, and the world will discover what bicycle enthusiasts everywhere already know-the bicycle is an ideal solution to a vast number of problems, meeting challenges of many different kinds in the area of personal transportation, energy efficiency, personal fitness, aesthetics, space allocation, user-friendliness, economic development, material resource conservation, universal availability and more.
It would be a good start if the government would start paying motorists to give up their automobiles and taking up bicycles. The building I live in has 60 apartments, and probably half again as many cars-say 100. At any given time, about half that number are actually in use, and many of those are possibly on errands that could as easily be done on a bicycle.
I believe we could manage with about one/third as many cars, shared among the building occupants and managed centrally by the guys in the ‘gyeongbi-sil’, who don’t have enough to do anyway. Replace the other cars with a fleet of bicycles, including some all-weather models, some heavy-duty models for carrying the groceries, some multiple-passenger models, and some speed models for work commutes.
Make an orderly transition from automobiles-only type infrastructure to cycle-safe, cycle-friendly public spaces, to encourage people to get out of the car as much as possible.
Stage some big consciousness-raising events in the countryside and make the whole idea more plausible and palatable to the public tastes. It doesn’t take all day on a bicycle on any pleasant day, to get the idea that its refreshing, stimulating, enlivening and altogether satisfactory as a way of moving about. It’s vastly more so in the absence of automobiles and the presence of bikepaths, facilities and amenities conducive to safe, convenient travel.
Bicycle-web the world! Park the car and pedal away! My father-in-law had a stroke near age 70 and had to quit driving, but wanted to keep working at his job managing a cinema in Jeonju. He parked the car we had given him years before, and it remains parked today. He washes it and starts it up once a month, but rides his bicycle to work through the city streets of Jeonju every day, rain or shine. He’s 75 now, and more fit than when he was 60. I’m 63, and if the possibility existed, I’d happily embark on a ride to Vladivostok. From there, another day or two through Primorye to Kamchatka. I’ll be long dead before the roads and facilities are available for such a sojourn to be possible, but waiting to start making it possible doesn’t seem necessary.
My long post missed referencing comment 35 as well as 33.
Well, since you ask:
http://archnet.org/library/sit.....te_id=7730
http://kwaebibiremtours.com/new/image99.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.....palace.jpg
http://www.kasubitombs.org/en/general/index.php
And OK, it’s not a palace, but still pretty cool:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djenn%C3%A9
I would say it is like people who first come to Korea are totally hooked on the greasy chicken and cheese “Fire Chicken” mix. It takes time to learn to savor less easy tastes like all different kinds of namul, or bowls of noodles which are less sharp in taste than shin-ramyeon. Unfortunately, time is not a selling point in tourism for most of the time.
I would add though that the tourism development, especially on the East Coast, has taken on scary proportions with sculpture parks popping up everywhere and local govt going out of their way to create “tourist spots”.
Most of which are rather dull and obviously straining in their effort, to say the least…
“No opportunties to sunbath by the pool or at the beach, no lazy wanderings in shorts, tank top and sandals, no poolside bars with cool,fruity drinks.”
You’re right. Going to the beach here is anything but a mellow experience. Generally, hanging out at the base of a mountain after a day’s hiking is far more mellow/relaxing than the beach. I think a lot of Koreans head to the hills to chill.
The KTO is one of the impediments to attracting tourism in Korea. What are they doing for foreigners, besides trying to take their money through direct management of the Seven Luck Casinos and part of the duty free shops? The KTO needs to focus on the core issues on how to attract tourists and not on money-making ventures that keep their own bacon employed.
A basic issue is language; we need to have shop signs in Korean and English so that foreigners can read it. Hangul is a brilliant language but one no-one else can comprehend.
“A basic issue is language; we need to have shop signs in Korean and English so that foreigners can read it. Hangul is a brilliant language but one no-one else can comprehend.”
Shops catering to tourists ought to have bilingual signs and staff, but ordinary shops and restaurants which see only the occasional foreign tourist do not need to go to the trouble. While dining with friends in a Sokcho restaurant, we noticed a young white man wandering along the sidewalk, alternately peering into an open book and gazing at the restaurant window. We guessed he was looking for a place to eat and invited him in to dine with us. Even if we hadn’t done so, I don’t think that European tourist would have starved to death. Adventure is part of the pleasure of travel.
And BTW, there are many foreigners like myself who can read Korean. It’s foreign TOURISTS who need the bilingual signage. “Foreigner” does not equal “tourist.” Your comment reminds me of a young Korean woman who approached me outside Yonsei’s Foreign Language Institute to ask me to complete a questionnaire about foreign tourists in Korea. I explained to her very nicely in Korean that I was a resident, not a tourist, that most foreigners in the area were residents, not tourists, and if she wanted to interview tourists, she should scout out popular tourist haunts like Gyeongbokkung. She practically ran away from me, apparently because I didn’t follow the script.
And Hangeul is an alphabet, not a language.
Yes to everyone. I like it too. Maybe market fusion dog dishes.
I had one in mid invloving a delicious mint (or if you perfer) plume sauce. And, instead of sesame leaf and buchoo, collard greens and seasoned mashed potatoes. Why boil the meat when you can roast or rotisserie it?
And yes China and Japan and Korea should get along better and coordinate tourism industries better. Oh well…
For adventurous Westerners who are too old, fat or timid to bungee jump but still want to cheat death or least live on the edge, how about nights in an old-style yogwan with a fan ON ALL NIGHT?
part of the problem is warped perceptions about what is attractive about the country for outsiders. take japan for example. recent times heaps of aussies have been coming to hokkaido for snowboarding - not for tea ceremony and chopstick lessons in kyoto.
similarly, the recent australian tourism slogan “where the bloody hell are you?” was a monumental failure. i cant believe the stupidity - its only mildly amusing for australians, its an in joke that nobody else gets - especially once translated into another language.
thanks, marmot. now i can see dtln was just kidding.
Ramping-up Korea’s mountain-cultural tourism (with solving some of the above-mentioned problems) is exactly what i work on, most of every day… Perhaps someday there will be some positive results.
If that’s the case, Sanshinseon, maybe some of us have already benefitted from changes you had a had in, without even realizing it. Keep up the good work.
…had a hand in…
to follow on from above post. the biggest tourist group to korea are japanese. why do they come? because they can within a weekend and
a)to eat yakiniku (korean bbq/sambab),
b) for sex tourism (assuming the mrs isnt in tow)
c) for cheaper plastic surgery
none of which was highlighted in the promo. cynacism aside,japanese are keen on korean food and food is an important component of travel for them - so that would be an obvious marketing thrust. authentic, tasty korean food.
the bottom line, though, is that the country is not a nice place to be in. koreans need to improve basic living conditions for themselves and then tourists may follow from that. i remember being in suwon prior to the world cup and there was all this talk about reducing air-pollution and traffic congestion cause all the weinom will be watching. why not do it for yourselves?