So, does Korean tourism lack a sales point?
That’s the question the Kyunghyang Shinmun’s Newsmaker magazine asks. It’s a good piece that raises a couple of issue — I’ve quickly summarized (i.e., it’s not a word-for-word translation) it for both your reading enjoyment and careful consideration.
Korea Tourism Has No ‘Sales Point’
Last year, over 6.4 million foreign tourists came to Korea, a 4.8% increase over the previous year. While Koreans tend to head overseas in summer, the foreign tourist season for Korea is a bit more spread out. The Japanese come in January, the Chinese in February, and Southeast Asians in July, November and December. Japanese accounted for the largest number of tourists at 2.215 million, followed by Chinese at 1.07 million. Relatively very few tourists come from North America, Europe and Oceania. Moreover, most of the American, European and Australian/New Zealand tourists that come on package tours come to Korea via China or Japan. Only 42.2% of them came purely for tourism purposes; 40.3% came for business or other professional activities.
Chinese Bitch About the Food
According to a poll conducted by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) of foreign tourists who visited Korea in 2007, most visited Seoul (73.4%), but that percentage is dropping every year. Other popular destinations were Incheon (19.1%), Busan (18.8%) and Jeju-do (13.8%).
So what are these guys seeing? Well, package tours differ according to price, but in terms of sightseeing, they don’t differ all that much. In the case of the Seoul metro area, tourists are usually brought to Gyeongbokgung, N Seoul Tower, Jongmyo, Namsan Hanok Village, Changdeokgung, Cheong Wa Dae, Insa-dong, Myeong-dong, Namdaemun and Dongdaemun Market, Unification Observatory and Everland. Packages usually include, at least as options, performances like Nanta, B-Boy, Chungdong Theater’s Korean traditional performances and the Walker Hill show. In Jeju-do, tourists see Seongsan Ilchulgong Peak, Jungmun Resort and the beaches.
The barbarians, however, are not particularly satisfied with the package tours. Firstly, they don’t get to see a whole lot, and the cheap tours tend to rush around, giving tourists a rather poor impression of Korea. Chinese tourists are particularly unhappy campers. This is because of option tours, frequent stops to travel-agency designated shops and bad food. Package tours for Chinese tend to be around 500,000-600,000 won. Kim Jong-sik, the president of a travel company that markets to Chinese tourists said Chinese often complain about the lack of nightlife in Korea and the food. Our Chinese neighbors, who traditionally eat generous amounts of oily, fried foods, come to Korea expecting the lavish palace cuisine seen in the popular Korean drama “Daejanggeum,” but they often leave disappointed. 500,000-600,000 won package tours usually provide meals of around 5,000 won, often one-course meals like seolleongtang. Moreover, since meals frequently consist of easily digested foods like vegetables, Chinese tourists often feel hungry.
Yes, you read that right.
The tourists who come on packages at this price range stay in places like the New Gukje, Lex, New Seoul, Yeongdong and Dongseoul Hotels.
Kim said Chinese, who have pretty impressive palaces like the Forbidden City, don’t get especially excited by Korea’s palaces, but they do like Dongdaemun, Myeong-dong and duty free shops. Singaporeans and Southeast Asians, too, tend to like shopping in Myeong-dong and Dongdaemun. This is because Korea is seen as on the vanguard of fashion and beauty. Tours including beauty stuff like wedding photos (get your makeup and dress done in Korea!) and skin scaling are popular. According to the KTO survey, the most common activity tourists did in Korea was shop (65.5%), and Myeong-dong (55.1%) was the most impressive destination.
Also, the number of young Japanese and Southeast Asian travelers coming to Korea on their own rather than on a package tour is climbing every year.
Aggressively Drawing Asian Tourists
The competitiveness of Korean tourism is falling compared to that of its neighbors, however. This is because Korea doesn’t have that much in terms of tourism resources (i.e., things to see), and it’s expensive. According to an October survey by the Korea Chamber of Commerce of 400 local travel companies, 64.4% said Korea’s tourism industry was uncompetitive and its future unpromising. Some 25.7% said with international competition intense, the future was unclear. In fact, the Japanese, Singaporean and Malaysian governments have aggressively come out to draw foreign tourists, raising the level of competition between Asian countries over the tourism market.
The case of Japan, which for the last two years has aggressively targeted the Chinese and Southeast Asian markets, is striking. Jang Yu-jae, the president of another tour company, said the Japanese government, tourism authorities, local governments and hotels were working together to actively draw foreign tourists. By sending promotional teams to each country, lowering costs and giving incentives to local tour companies, Japan was seeing tangible results. In terms of price competitiveness, one Chinese tour company was offering a 5-day, 4-night tour package to Korea (Busan-Seoul-Jeju) for 620,000 won, while a 6-day, 5-night trip to that evil island-stealing nation across the East Sea (Osaka-Hakone-Tokyo) cost 730,000 won. For only 110,000 won more, you could stay an extra day in Japan. And there’s more to see. Compared to Japan, were many first-time visitors go back again and again to visit other regions, in the case of Korea, many don’t come back after they’ve been to Seoul, Jeju and Busan, believing there to be little else to see. This, says Newsmaker, suggests a lot.
Local travel agencies in China and Southeast Asia, too, push tours to Japan over Korea. Because of the aggressive promotion by the Japanese government, sales of tour products to Japan are more profitable than those to Korea. Jang said in China, many travel agencies treat tour packages to Korea and Japan the same, but when they sell a package, the margin left over from a Japanese tour package is three times that of a Korean one.
The KTO has pledged to bring 10 million tourists to Korea by 2010, and Seoul City said it will bring 12 million tourists. No clear plans to reach this goal, however, have yet been made. The KTO is working with the inbound tourism agency to get off the cheap package tour thing and develop mid-to-high range tourism products. The question, however, is whether they will be able to get back from Japan and elsewhere the tourists they’ve taken.
Marmot’s Note: There’s a lot to say about this, but just off the top of my head, I think it’s a sin that Gyeongju isn’t on the top three travel destinations, and moreover, I think it’s important to set realistic goals. Half a country — and let’s face it, that’s what the Republic of Korea is — is going to have a tough time competing with Japan for tourists. That said, there’s plenty to see, and it could be promoted a lot better than it is, but that’s not going to happen effectively if there’s a fixation with numbers. You’ve got to be comfortable with what you’ve got before you flaunt it, and truth be told, I’m not quite sure if the powers that be — be it on the national or local level — are fully there yet.
222 Comments
Absolutely true. I would also like to see fewer or better organized high school and middle school trips to Gyeongju as well since being around Gyeongju in the midst of the school field trip season is an experience from hell and does not help promote a good tourism experience there.
If the KNTO was serious about improving the country’s image they’d clamp down on Internet comment boards such as this one where the majority of fools do nothing but rag off on the country. That, and develop the domestic market first by ensuring people had more time off from work to travel locally..
SWLee, what did I tell you the first time about comments like that?
As per #2 outburst, it’s portals like this one, replete with archives of of info on Korea that put it on the map. Any small wonder many heavy weights are turning to blogging to reach out to the masses - KTO been one of them.
As for this:
‘You’ve got to be comfortable with what you’ve got before you flaunt it, and truth be told, I’m not quite sure if the powers that be — be it on the national or local level — are fully there yet.’
I couldn’t agree more. That level of embellishment does nothing to let the country speak for itself. I think people visiting here and making their own sense of adventure is certainly far more appealing. By boldly claiming that Jeju is the ‘Tahiti of Asia’ does nothing but send a gaggle of naysayers scurrying off with faulty impressions. There really is a swelling degree of competition between Korea and its neighbours that is drastically undermining the tourism industry on the whole.
I mean the commenters Robert, not the entire blog itself. You’ve worked in this field long enough to know that as is evident by your attempts to promote Korea and to swing the discourse around when it is needed. Despite this, the general tone of the comment section here is anti-Korean. Whether you get stuck with all the bitter expats or they migrate here from other Korea-bashing sites on the Internet, or that in fact it is merely reflecting a reality that most foreign people living in Korea fail to appreciate the place for what it is and like to ‘rag on it’, I don’t know.
Getting on the map is one thing Greg, having a nice image is another. I’m not saying Korea has a bad image, I believe it to be the contrary, however discussion of this topic on this blog generally results in the old motorbike-sidewalk-spitting-trophywifeleftme routine. My intended point being that I believe the comment section of this blog (and it is far from alone) does very little to promote Korea in a positive way. The level of Robert’s liability for this is for him to figure out, and I intend no insult by expressing my opinion.
I don’t live in Korea, but I do have to visit there a fair amount. The impression I get when I visit is that Korea is mostly “by Koreans for Koreans” which isn’t a problem since it’s Koreans living there, but as a white face, there really isn’t anything very compelling about the place from a tourist’s perspective. It’s well organized, reasonably polite and I can see why Koreans are very proud of their country, but tourism is a different beast.
I certainly don’t have any horror stories and there are a number of things I liked about my time in and around Seoul, but compare that to Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong or Bangkok, all of which are A grade tourist spots, and Seoul comes up short.
I had the feeling, and it’s been seconded by many friends and colleagues, that Korea is just not that friendly a place for tourists. There’s nothing offensive or rude about how the Koreans behave, but you don’t get the sense that people are in any way happy that you’ve come.
Again, it’s their country and they can do whatever they please, but if you want to get the tourists coming back and telling their friends to go, they need to have great experiences. I live in China and it’s about 9-1 ratio of negative to positive reports on visits to the country.
Fair play, HojuSoju. Frankly, I try to keep out of this hotbed of activity. As per the post, I thought it was a pretty good one. There’s such a misallocation of resources that unfortunately keeps a lot of Korea’s finer points shrouded in mystery for newcomers.
“My intended point being that I believe the comment section of this blog (and it is far from alone) does very little to promote Korea in a positive way.
Actually, Koreans do little to promote Korea in a positive way. They offense easily and never ask non-Koreans what they want or do anything to fix what needs fixing. Clamping down on message boards instead of engaging in some deep self-analysis sounds like a typical Korean “solution.”
“Package tours for Chinese tend to be around 500,000- 600,000 won.”
…and they expect banquet meals and a room at the Sheraton?
Korea still hasn’t gotten its head around the fact that everything in life isn’t a competition against Japan and China. Koreans are obsessed with promoting themselves to make themselves feel better, not promoting themselves to show someone from another country what they have to offer.
And I agree with Karl that Korea is mostly “for Koreans, by Koreans”. Everwhere I go in this country I always feel like everyone wants to say, “Yeah, thanks for coming and all but could you please just pay the bill and leave?”
As for the Chinese feeling hungry, a clever tour operator would simply tell them “See, you went to North Korea as well at no extra cost!”
B-boy show on the package tour!
There should be constant B-boy shows on every street corner in the nation.
That will make it a 1st class tourism destination and a world power all in one!
*Sorry, but I believe the B-boy bullsh*t to be completely stupid, totally uninteresting for 99.9% of potential tourists, and an activity for poseur dipsh*ts!
P.S.- Karl & Anton nailed it!
There’s just nothing here that is a big draw for tourism- not just sights, but also the atmosphere.
Most Koreans and the Tourism Board don’t seem to understand that.
They just understand “China & Japan have lots of tourists, so we should too!”.
They don’t understand a whole lot about how to build a place- environment & atmosphere- that people want to visit.
They just continue with the attitude that “it’s just fine for Koreans, so the rest of the world should enjoy it too”.
They can’t seem to understand that it just doesn’t work like that.
Also, the “it’s just fine for Koreans” bit- most Koreans are dying to skip yet another trip to Kyungju for the 100th time and visit other countries. It’s lack of money/time that holds them back.
Of course, when asked, they will say they are absolutely thrilled to visit Kyungju yet again!
*I live in the Southeast and every resident here has been to Kyungju at least 10 times.
#12,
Please, no.
I’d never leave my apartment.
Sorry, but let me change
“There’s just nothing here that is a big draw for tourism- not just sights, but also the atmosphere.
Most Koreans and the Tourism Board don’t seem to understand that.”
to
“The Tourism Board and media”
Many Koreans know why tourists don’t want to come here.
I think bundling a Korea side trip to a
China or Japan visit is an excellent way to get visitors here.
Repeat (non-business) visitors are the key, and how many of those does Korea get?
Ultimately the high cost of airfare will cause Koreans may take fewer overseas trips, and this will redress the imbalance…though keep the tourist market Korea centric.
This topic is a perennial on Marmot’s:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2007/.....n-tourism/
Just clean up all the trash everywhere and fix the hangeul romanization once and for all.
“You’ve got to be comfortable with what you’ve got before you flaunt it”
That the best advice for all of Korea’s “hub” fantasies. “Competent” could also be added to “comfortable”, but that’s another issue.
Funny, I never feel that way.
That’s simply not true. I’ve dealt with the tourism authorities on both a national and local level for both work and personal reasons, and most are all too happy to promote their places to foreigners and will go out of their way to be helpful. Some of the problem is simply language — a lot of locales don’t have the personnel required to properly promote their assets in foreign languages such as English. And a lot of Korea’s best stuff is deep in the countryside, which makes it difficult to access for those without Korean language skills. The KTO does an admirable job trying to promote the country, IMHO, but the reality is what it is — for English speakers, getting around is going to be a bit of a challenge. Granted, Japan has similar issues in this regard, but major tourist draws like Kinkakuji have brand power that places like Buseoksa don’t.
My Chinese friends have enjoyed the caves and the DMZ. I guess they feel they can see temples and palaces back home (and probably caves too). There’s plenty of Chinese-style oily food around if that’s what people want. And if they’re leaving Korean restaurants feeling hungry their tour operators must be doing something wrong (ripping them off). Whenever I go out with Koreans I always feel they order way too much food and the courses just keep coming and coming, way past the point where it would be enough.
Mind you, if you went on a package bus tour to the Garden of Eden I’m sure you could come away with a negative impression of being rushed around and surrounded by crowds all the time.
Korea does seem to be undervalued by foreigners as a tourist destination. I don’t know why that is. The tourist information within the country is actually quite good. Maybe it suffers from similar image problems as Singapore and Taiwan. Too much Asian tiger and semiconductor factories and not enough 5,000 years of history. Maybe they could promote the mountains and rural regions more. Hiking and fishing and the like. That might balance the impression of large industrialized cities and overcrowding.
Unless you have nice beaches and hot tropical weather, you need brand power to attract tourists. China and Japan have brand power, Korea doesn’t. The names “China” and “Japan” alone, makes them great destinations. Korea on the other hand, lacks that image of a rich history and a rich culture.
Korea Tourism Has No ‘Sales Point’
Damn, I would have given the agency who conducted this study the same exact results and charge them 50% less.
I agree with Mr. Marmot that you don’t find many fluent English speakers outside of Seoul, which makes Korea more of a “seasoned traveler” destination. The temple stay program is one big draw other countries don’t have, other than that, I don’t know, maybe some organized mountain backpacking trips?
It’s also a great idea to bundle Korea as side trip to China and/or Japan.
Everyday I drive up and down the Itaewon road a few times. The part of Itaewon towards Hannam dong is absolutely crowded with tour buses double parked and sometimes even taking up the entire road. They are taking the tourists to these pile of shit restaurants that are no better than 김밥천국. Then there are a couple of rip off “art galleries” they stop off at that only has customers because of the tours.
Then at night you see these vans parked all down the road for visits to the Korean hookers. I do not know if they are song rooms or hostess bars as there really is not any signage.
Sure, these tour companies are making a shitload of money, but the KTO needs to grade these tour companies in some way because they really are giving Korea a bad name tourism wise — this is especially detrimental seeing how there is not too much to see/do here compared to the rest of Asia. I have never ever seen a Chinese tour group at Seoraksan and that place is stunning.
I think as the comment about the Chinese tourists who are disappointed in the food because they expect it to be like in the dramas shows, many of the Asian tourists are basing their expectations of Korea on the dramas. I think that is a big reason that a lot of Asian tourists come. I have Japanese ladies in my Korean class who apparently came just for the dramas. I’m not sure if they expected all of Korea to be like one running drama, but obviously when they get here and see ajossi’s spitting on the sidewalk and people running into them on the subway they are disappointed. I think Korea should create some kind of Dramaland. There could be a resort there and it could be like some kind of living drama. There could be sets like in popular dramas. Some actor from the dramas could stop by each day and let the tourists take a few pictures. There could be a couple themed rides. I think if there could be some kind of comprehensive resort most tourists would be satisfied to come for a few days and live out some drama fantasy. Oh, and if anyone from the KTO reads this, Patent Pending bitches!
I wonder how much tourism here is created by word of mouth advertising?
Having lived in China , Taiwan, and Korea, I don’t think it pays to overanalyze this. Korea just can’t compete with Japan and China in this game and they are barking up the wrong tree by trying. The sheer magnitude of stellar sightseeing in China and Japan dwarfs what Korea offers. Food and shopping are pretty secondary. Mount Fuji, the Great Wall, or…. KYONGJU? Spare me.
Agreed with #24. Korean Tour operators are the biggest problem. They lure Asian tourists with cheap prices and in turn provide cheap service.
Word of mouth data is difficult to collate, but I do know that when the government gives statistics for the number of US tourists coming here that nearly 30% are made up of US soldiers coming in from a base in Japan for weekend drinking and around 40% are military personel formerly stationed here coming back to visit the juicy girl’s parents. What we would regard as genuine tourist travel from the US makes up under 20%.
Hey, I love Sokcho and Soraksan. It is where my wife and I fell in love. I don’t mind the line forming to walk up Ulsan Bawi. The food there is spectacular.
However, I must disagree with you, Robert, there are certain fundamentals that Korean proprietors do not understand. If I go during peak season I understand the exorbitant prices for a room. If I go back there in dead winter and the Hotel is empty, I mean not another soul in the entire building, do you think they could cut back on the rate a tad? Most of their staff is gone, but, really, they won’t have to clean the room for a couple months.
My wife is fluent in Korean and that doesn’t seem to make a difference. The fact that we’ve stayed there four times previously doesn’t seem to make a difference. They simply don’t seem to value our business. No rate cut, not if hell freezes over!
Korean Tour Operators say too much on the bus when there just can’t be much to say not even in other countries. During a 90 minute ride there just isn’t much between Bangkok and Pattaya yet they don’t shut up nearly the entire way. One of the things they say to Koreans visiting Thai is… “Germans come here to fuck monkey faced girls.”
It’s simple, really:
“Half a country — and let’s face it, that’s what the Republic of Korea is — is going to have a tough time competing with Japan for tourists.”
Most of the country’s visible cultural artifacts were destroyed or looted by the Japanese during their occupation. The Korea war then destroyed what little was left.
So, it’s no surprise there’s not much to see of Korea’s ancient culture. Ditto for the other “Asian tigers” mentioned. Japan was not a kind and benevolent occupier.
Let’s see how popular Japan is for tourism after Korea and the other “Asian tigers” occupy and pillage it for 35+ years.
tbone, please…
Just ignore #32 comment. The last thing this comment section needs is yet another Japan-Korea debate.
#32 MigukNamja
Grab a tack hammer, go in front of the Japanese Embassy and start pounding away at your head til you feel light-headed. Just think, you can become a martyr to all those other idiots harping on our colonial past.
That is a strikingly good idea and just like the idea of rebuilding the four city gates and building up the surrounding areas based upon each gate, as a theme — such a good idea shall not be acted upon.
# 33
What, you don’t believe me? I kid you not, I was there. I wondered if this was just some Lone Ranger Tour Guide but the same was said on the other bus in our group. This occurred on buses owned by a large Korean Tour Operator.
“Korea does seem to be undervalued by foreigners as a tourist destination. I don’t know why that is.” (Comment #20)
It is not “undervalued.” People don’t lie about their tourism experiences just to make Koreans feel bad. The fact is it is a crummy place to visit. I have been to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong and China and they all had much more to offer than Korea. I mean, who wants to sit on plastic chairs when they visit the seaside and eat kimbap? Or dodge people letting off fireworks everywhere (at Taechun Beach, for example)? Then there are the noraebangs … hooray, big deal. And the architecture, though there are a few interesting buildings, doesn’t compare to what can be found in other countries, whether the Japanese knocked the “best” buildings down or what have you.
What Koreans also have to realize is that when foreigners work in Korea and employers give them dodgy contracts or otherwise treat them poorly they are not going to be ambassadors for Korea. I doubt, for example, that most people who work in the EFL industry are praising the nation and urging people to visit. The same goes for the migrant workers and foreign companies. A look at Korea’s FDI figures lately says it all. Korea has a bad reputation — one that it earned on its own and one that it cannot blame on others (though this is a national pastime).
How the heck does that happen? Bribes and kickbacks? Seems like, what with prices between the two being what they are, the travel agencies would show at least a little more profit from Korea tours than Japan ones.
…and how much overall tourism would be gained if the North merged with the South? I can just imagine the advertisements:
Yeah… That’ll draw a lot more tourists in. Face it, outside of the kitsch appeal of seeing a totalitarian state up-close, North Korea is more or less a wasteland for tourism.
As for the whole ‘half a country’ spiel… So what? So’s Austria, and they bounced back smashingly from losing Hungary. At least South Korea got the better half of the former country of Korea. It’s almost as if Virginians were still whinging over losing West Virginia, for heaven’s sake. Let’s bring back the Roman Empire while we’re at it, since that makes almost as much sense as re-uniting North and South Korea.
Well shoot, if the KNTO isn’t doing the job, then why should we be picking up their slack? More to the point, though, wouldn’t the publicity over South Korea ‘clamping down’ on negative commentary do even more to tarnish their international image?
Exactly. There isn’t a single tourist attraction or national landmark in Korea that is globally recognized. Japan is bigger and China much bigger than Korea, but I don’t think either has significantly more to offer per square kilometer. Telling your friends back home that you walked on the Great Wall or went shopping in Ginza and you will hear oohs and aahs. Tell them you went to Gyeongju and you will get a blank stare.
Telling your friends… = Tell your friends…
“while a 6-day, 5-night trip to that evil island-stealing nation across the East Sea (Osaka-Hakone-Tokyo) cost 730,000 won.”
This part of the article was kind of interesting. Is this to be taken as a joke, or did the author really mean this?
Anyhow, visiting colonial era buildings/artifacts seems fun. I enjoy Robert’s photos every time.
40 Sonagi
You’re way off buddy.
We have the tallest building in the world in Yeoido called the 63 Building. Havent you heard of it? It’s even got its own world class aquarium which is an incentive for people to travel hundreds if not thousands of miles to see.
We also have LotteWorld and Everland which are waaaaaaayyyyy better than Disneyland so people will surely bypass Tokyo and HK. When I was a kid and given a choice bw LW and DL, I always felt an affinity to a pretty raccoon that a dirty rat. Hands down, LW bc Korea has the highest and scariest roller coaster the world can offer.
We also have a boatload of Buddhist temples with beautiful pagodas which can only be found in Korea Japan and China’s temples are not as beautiful as the ones in Korea as any sane person will recognize. As a matter of fact, Korea taught those dirty barbarians how to build buildings. Before Korea, all Asians lived in mud pits.
Korea also offers Minsokchon which offers a lot of Korean history. When you’re there, you’ll be blown away by what you can learn about Silla, Baekche Goguryo and Chosun architectural history.
Oh and all the brand name shopping you can do in Korea! Gucci and Louis Vuitton cannot be found else where in Asia.
Unless Korea recognizes it’s got basically nothing to offer for mass tourism, no one will bother investing in the industry.
I think the closest thing we had to mass tourism, until a few years ago, was the sex tourist industry….which is not something to be very happy about. If they wanna make some dirty money and revive the economy, maybe they should just accept what 99% of Koreans already know: there’s a whorehouse or two on every street corner.
korea is simply not a sell out culture like japan or china.
I am curious about the three gorges dam. Will definitely visit it one of these days…
Maybe Korea could build something as humongous as the three gorges dam?
-> the CANAL!!!
I don’t think Robert will waste a moment’s time pondering his “liability.” Bloggers of all nationalities blog about what interests them. If you could kindly direct me to overseas Korean bloggers who promote Australia, New Zealand, Canada, or the US in a positive way, I’d love to have a read.
Didn’t know it was the job of Mr Marmot to promote Korea.
There’s isn’t much to see in Korea anyway. What’s interesting about hearing the “poor Koreans, our history is so sad” victimization bullshit anyway?
Face reality Korea. There’s a reason why Time listed North Korea and not South Korea as a top destination in Asia. Get over it and move on.
What you can see in Korea, you can generally see in Japan…without the xenophobia.
I’m no tourism expert, but maybe just maybe it may have to do with the fact that Korea (the cities) is just plain ol UGLY.
The KNTO splashed sparkling signs all over Sydney last month.
I then booked a ticket to Beijing with Asiana return, with transfers in Seoul from Sydney for a good price this coming September. When I changed my plans and asked to have a few days stopover in Korea, the price went up $330 as it was a different type of ticket. This actually costs the airline less as they don’t have to pay for my over night hotel at Incheon…but I still had to pay an extra $330 odd dollars for the stoppover.
The same applies to many Australians using a Korean airline to Europe, if they want a stopover, they have to pay extra. I wrote about this to the KNTO and they said KAL and Asiana are private companies and make their own pricing.
If Korea wants to compete with Japan and China for tourists it the government needs to ‘get on board’ with the natinoal airlines and make it more attractive.
Otherwise Korea will continue with its huge tourist deficit.
What Koreans also have to realize is that when foreigners work in Korea and employers give them dodgy contracts or otherwise treat them poorly they are not going to be ambassadors for Korea. I doubt, for example, that most people who work in the EFL industry are praising the nation and urging people to visit.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to damper the influx of low-quality Engrish teaching foreigners into Korea. Or is it?
Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to damper the influx of low-quality Engrish teaching foreigners into Korea. Or is it?
- probably not.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
…. Come teach EFL in Korea!!
“Some of the problem is simply language”
Yeah, like strolling around Tokyo and Beijing alleys you find tons of Japanese and Chinese people speaking fluently English. Hand signs work everywhere, so don’t blame the language skills.
This topic is so old…and so obvious…Korea has nothing to offer compared to Japan and China…and to other destinations. I really don’t get why we go over and over again on this subject…mental mastu*bation, maybe…
Singaporeans and Southeast Asians, too, tend to like shopping in Myeong-dong and Dongdaemun. This is because Korea is seen as on the vanguard of fashion and beauty.
Vanguard of fashion and beauty… Fucking Christ… It’s because it’s crowded, there are tons of Koreans walking around, it’s a cheap thrill… Doesn’t matter that all the shops are the same as back home. People like the closeness, the noise, the atmosphere, they want to hear the language and watch the locals… Ajumma soup and salad stalls in Namdaemun are the best part of the Seoul visitor’s experience. The new Korea is a drag, everybody wants the old alleys of Namdaemun.
Potentially, tourists from Japan could be greatly increased. But watching fanatic anti-Japanese protesters on news every day, most Japanese think twice before deciding holiday trip destination.
How well, do you think, Japanese tourists are welcomed in Korea?
Actually Netizen it encourages them to come by the vacuum left by the good quality ones going to where they can receive a fair deal.
I had this problem with tourist image of Korea, I am getting married in Korea in November but my parents are going to spend 8 days in China, 7 days on some beach in SE Asia and only a week in Korea. I could find things my mum might like (photograph some temples, etc) but my step dad likes to relax and do little on holiday, it is hard to get that type of experience in Korea. Are those tourists a completely lost entity, the club med tourists?
J
From my personal experience visiting Korea, I think it is safe to say, that in general Koreans are very kind and full of hospitality especially against Japanese.
It was even so in the mid 90ies, times when Korea were far more nationalistic and anti-Japanese.
I am tempted to describe contemporary Korea as almost a “pro-Japanese” nation, albeit that their politician, their media, well and maybe everyone is bitching about Japan and the Japanese.
Personal relationship with Korean was always a pleasant experience for me.
@26 Big B has a great idea. Though many would disagree that Korean needs another theme park, something along the lines of Universal Studios, where the scenery looks likes scenes from Korea’s most successful movies and soap operas, and live shows are staged to re-enact some of the most vivid or emotional scenes, would probably draw in those Asian tourists who are die hard Korean cinema and soap opera fans. For most Westerners, Korea at best will be a stopover between Japan and China. Such tours will likely be short (3 days or so), but still increases Korean tourism. Korea deserves a spot on the East Asian itinerary of any serious Western tourist, but it will unlikely become the destination of choice until such time as a fair number of Westerners can count Korean blood among their Heinz 57 geneology.
Inkevitch. Take your Mum and Stepdad up to Gapyong to the Australian/New Zealand memorial. Let them stand where 3 RAR and the Canadian PPCLI, backed up by Kiwi artillery, convinced the Chinese to abandon human wave attacks against western troops. Remind them that one of the companies that accomplished this miracle, was commanded by an Abo, Captain Reg Saunders. If that doesn’t make their chests swell with justifiable pride, you’ve got the wrong flag next to your name, Mate. (ps: check with your Embassy’s defence attache. He can give you driving directions.)
Koreans always manage to interpret foreign dissatisfaction with Korea in such a way that it does not hurt their own pride.
Chinese come here thinking they like Korean food, and then get very bored of it very fast because it is uniformly spicy, too heavily meat based, and has too narrow an assortment of vegetables. But the Koreans say “Their food is greasy, so if they don’t like ours, it must be because it isn’t greasy enough.” The Korean notion that their cuisine is higher in vegetables than other countries’ just because they have lots of little dishes with little shreds of pickled things always makes me laugh.
Another Japan-Korea debate?! Where?! WHERE?!
I agree with what was said about making Gyeongju a bigger international tourist destination. There’s a lot to see. Also, I agree with Robert’s comment that most of the whining by expats about Korea is due to their ignorance of the language. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of annoying things here and some of the complaints are valid. However, much of the comments about Koreans being too self-centered can be turned around on the commenters as well.
As for the Chinese who want that kind of food, they should have a tour that includes one of the many 한정식 restaurants in the Pangyo (판교)/Euiwang (의왕) area, but it will cost more.
A “green tea” tour to Hwagae Marketplace (화개장터) near Hadong (하동) might be another good idea, but probably too time consuming and out of the way to get there.
I think part of the problem is that the ROK is for all intent and purposes is an island, I think if there were a high speed train from Busan to Beijing that might help expand the tourism industry. Also showers at Haundae may help!
“Also, I agree with Robert’s comment that most of the whining by expats about Korea is due to their ignorance of the language.”
So tourists have to learn Korean before they visit Korea? I don’t speak Thai, but enjoyed it there. I don’t speak Japanese either yet enjoyed Japan. I speak Korean fairly well but still think Korea can’t compare to other places I’ve been in Asia.
It’s not a language issue. Koreans just don’t know how to make foreign visitors feel comfortable. You do not need to know the language — body language, smiles and goodwill are enough.
… and places to actually see are important too.
@ 58 lirelou,
Well may it be for Australia to pin medals on its buffalo soldiers, what will it take for that nation to start celebrating those indigenous people that fought to defend their own land?
Lest we forget, there are still ‘Abos’ fighting that fight.
One other observation I could make is that many of the tourist drawing sites, i.e., Disneyland, the great wall, etcetera, are just out to grab a quick experience, shoot some shots, buy tourist junk and eat a meal that is different from back home. That is fine for some but for others, they may want to soak in and experience a different place, thus they look for a comprehensive experience. This sort of experience is what is good about Korea, IMHO, but it takes time or thoughtful planning to work that out. If I go to some country I have never been to before, I do not use tourist packages, I just go, dressed to blend in and flow with no goal in mind and it turns out I get the most interesting experience as a result because I get to focus on the environment and people instead of some tour trap designed to take my money.
Likewise, promoting “tourism” in Korea takes some thought about just who are your tourists and what sort of experience do they want. Some in the KTO understand this and do their best, others who are more bureaucratic-minded don’t get it and don’t care. The situation seems to be improving but more insight and better direction is needed, IMHO.
“I just go, dressed to blend in”
LMAO
#61 Dr. Doom
Did I say “tourists” or did I say “expats?” I clearly stated “expats,” and the reference was to the “hate Korea” comments they make on this blog. However, you are right that Robert did discuss it in the context of tourism (#19). The subtopic came up in the earlier comments if you would like to read further up (#2-#5).
I haven’t really experienced too many problems with that. It seems that Robert hasn’t either. This leads me to think that the problem might be due in part to the one experiencing it.
#49
You have a good point about the stopovers. Dubai has been really successful at this. Emirates offers a stopover on all of its flights that transfer in Dubai - they ususally even throw in a free hotel room for a night. When people go on vacation there’s always a risk in trying someplace different. If it were cheap to do a stopover in Seoul (say $100-$200 including hotel for a night) I think a lot more people would try it.
Re #34:
You can ignore the elephant in the room if you want, but it doesn’t make it go away. It really is simple : occupation + war equals pillaging and destruction on a massive scale. Hence, not much old, cool stuff to look at.
Geez, someone mentions the obvious and it’s treated as heresy.
Re: #35:
Doomed to repeat it and all that. You have to know where you’ve come from to know where you’re going. Sticking your head in the sand won’t help.
Re #64
That’s exactly my point. Korea doesn’t have much to set itself apart from other Asian countries. But, it’s hard to blame Korea for lacking cool, old shit when nearly all of it was destroyed from 1910 through 1953.
The major stuff is all relatively new, which means it’s not that much different than modern Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, etc.,.
Hence, there’s not enough compelling reasons to extend the time between connecting flights through Incheon, get out of the airport, and see the country, much less actually make Korea the final destination for tourism.
“I haven’t really experienced too many problems with that. It seems that Robert hasn’t either. This leads me to think that the problem might be due in part to the one experiencing it.”
Maybe, but then why are my experiences different and better elsewhere? I should consistently feel the same everywhere if that were true but it isn’t the case. Anyway, if you live in Korea you better learn to love it. It sucks living somewhere you don’t like.
“You can ignore the elephant in the room if you want, but it doesn’t make it go away. It really is simple : occupation + war equals pillaging and destruction on a massive scale. Hence, not much old, cool stuff to look at.”
Miguk Namja, I don’t expect much from a person who actually believes that quest for earthquake free land was the prime motivation for imperial Japan to invade China,but nonetheless ,”Most of the country’s visible cultural artifacts were destroyed or looted by the Japanese during their occupation” is an urban myth.
Read the book written by the Korean born archaeologist Hyung Il-Pai which title is “Constructing “Korean” Origins: A Critical Review of Archaeology, Historiography, and Racial Myth in Korean State Formation”. She details that it was rather Japanese archaeologists and Colonial government who introduced modern archaeology and museums and thus actually protected, recovered old sites and temples which during the Yi dynasty were almost ignored and abandoned (because the dynasty was heavily neo-Confucian, it just had just zero interest in protect and maintain old “heretic” sites, monuments and temples).
#73 TJ
Yes, it was very kind of the Japanese to protect all of that cultural heritage by putting it in museums back in Japan for safe keeping. Thanks so much.
NES I am happy to announce for your great relief that actually the colonial government had established a law in 1916 to prevent looting of cultural heritage by Japanese and Korean looters. The government had also ensured that all excavated and newly found cultural heritage should found their ways to the museum in Seoul.
Hyung in his books also describes how some Japanese scholars remained after WW2, despite the soviets advancement, to protect the Seoul museum and handle it to proper Korean hands.
Of course I am not saying that there was zero looting or destruction of Korean cultural heritage, but “Most of the country’s visible cultural artifacts were destroyed or looted by the Japanese during their occupation” is simply a myth.
From the review article of Hyung’s book written by Roald Maliangkay:
http://koreaweb.ws/ks/ksr/ksr01-10.htm
I’m a 2-year Seoul resident that just got back from a 5-day business trip to Osaka. It was the first time I’ve been to Japan for any length of time. There was no shortage of westerners there. But one thing that I definitely noted is that people would smile when they saw me walking around their city. I know this is totally subjective, but it made me feel very welcome. You don’t get that in Korea; the people seem a little dour. That can’t help tourism in the Chosun.
On a (perhaps) unrelated subject, I was there to meet with a Japanese supplier. Every day at 5:15 PM, the office PA system played a tune and everyone got up and went home. Wow. I haven’t seen that in a long time.
Stevadoo knows to write ‘every day’ as two separate words. I haven’t seen THAT in a long time. Gold star.
Visit my law firm sometime. At 12 noon on the dot, the place becomes abandoned — I’m talking tumbleweeds blowing — as everyone heads out for lunch. Same thing happens at 6:00 p.m. with dinnertime. Most of ‘em come back, because they have work to do, but just try to find one of our associates around that time. Can’t be done.
They’ve done the same thing with vacations. Everyone is obligated to take their vacation in the same general time frame (late August) and this is a real cramp on the ability to get things done. Luckily August is (usually) a slow period for law firms, but this month I had some urgent projects to dole out and it was a real bear to find free hands.
#75 TJ
Not quite as neat and tidy as you might want to think:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/48765/output/print
tomojiro is correct about Japan’s official policies 1910-1945 — but that’s only part of the story; it would be no surprise that highly-placed Japanese found plenty of unofficial ways to get Korean items back to their family property on the islands… But anyway the greatest grievance about “looting” is from the Imjin dustup — by general international standards, too long ago to do anything about.
Just a technical note from your post:
> Hyung in his books
It’s actually *her* book, Hyung-Il Pai is a very nice and thoroughly intelligent woman, professoring at the University of California. Family name is Pai, which should actually be spelled Bae these days. She was drinking green tea over a long chat in my office just over a month ago… You are quite correct that her book you mentioned is excellent, groundbreaking, essential and etc. I asked her if she had received excessive amounts of harassment, job-ending-threats and whatever for daring to publish what she did — she laughed and said that’s why she teaches in California.
Anyway, yeah, there’s still a long way to go for getting Korean tourism to where it should be. We’ve got some heavy built-in disadvantages — really bad summer weather (June ~ August is global tourism’s biggest time), inadequate snow in the winter, population that is often cool to foreigners and would just rather not deal with them, some outright xenophobia… But lack of things to see and do are far from the main problem, in my mind.
In the Visit Korea Year 2001-2002 committee, we actually spent a fair amount of time trying to improve the Korean public’s attitude towards foreign tourists, and the tourism industry in general… It’s harder than you think!
Religious and Mountain tourism are relatively unexploited fields that really should be pushed a lot more — especially my baby the Temple-Stay program. Gyeongju and Sorak-san should get a lot more foreign visitors than they do — and might if transportation access could only be improved (KTX lines). The traffic difficulties of getting out of and the back into Seoul really need to be ameliorated, too…
And then, the really great attractions here just need a lot more and a lot better publicity — Gyeongju and Sorak-san can stand up against anything Japan or China have, if only people interested in Asian culture and landscapes know about them!
I know I’m in a minority of one on this site but I happen to think that Korea is a great travel destination. I can’t talk about the golf or the shopping or things for kids but in terms of the things I look for it does just fine. Cheap accommodation, cheap transportation (cf Japan), loads of history, beautiful nature, great food…
I seem to be the only one who thinks so on this site but I’m not the only one. Only last night I was having dinner in London with a British friend who’s done a bit of traveling in his time and he was saying how beautiful Korea was. My sister really enjoyed her time visiting me in Seoul and an Iranian friend sent me this a couple of days ago
“Sorry for being late in reply. I have been in Hodo(호 도), a small island, 1 hour far from the Bo-Ryung city in Chungcheong south Province (the city which mud fest. was there). It was just an AMAZING place. A very small island (1.3 km^2) which you can go from the up to down by 10-15 minutes walk. No car, no pollution, no noise… and a very beautiful nature. I was there for 4 days and spent my whole time by
swimming or laying down on the beach and listening to the sea voice and watching the sun set or the sun rise. My English is not good enough to describe how beautiful and quiet place this island is and how much did I enjoy…”
Sounds like he had a good time. While he complains about his English I can tell you it’s a whole lot better than his Korean.
#79
“Not quite as neat and tidy as you might want to think”
Do you even read the article before you link?
“To be sure, not all the works were looted; Kakurinji Temple, for instance, received the painting–probably as a gift–long before the Japanese invasion.”
And the temple was founded by a Korean monk who came to Japan.
I was surprised when I read this article that the reporters chosed the Kakurinji case to make their point of argument,as if they are giving some moral high ground to the thieves.
Besides,these artifacts may be culturally important,but hardly any tourist magnet.I don’t see so many Koreans paying pilgrimage to Tokyo’s National Museum for “stolen” Korean arts,although I see hundreds of them flocking in Shibuya and Ginza for shopping.
“You can ignore the elephant in the room if you want, but it doesn’t make it go away.”
Yeah,Sungnyemun was selected as the first cultural artifact for preservation by the office of governor-general of Chosen and it has been a great tourist asset for Seoul until last year.
But it wasn’t burned to the ground by the hand of Japanese…
“Korea doesn’t have much to set itself apart from other Asian countries. But, it’s hard to blame Korea for lacking cool, old shit when nearly all of it was destroyed from 1910 through 1953.”
Really, what cool old shit do you imagine there was anyway?
When I lived in the countryside in the 70s, it was all mud, strawthatched huts and traditional shingled houses with cinderblock walls. The towns all had rough-hewn ugly cement and cider block buildings. Even today, things are little better today aesthetically. The general environment is cheap, hastily and shoddily built servicable but hardly culturally significant.
My impression is that there was never very much culturally to recommend Korea, and things are not much improved today.
The main things I enjoyed in those years was the feeling of an untouched quintessentially Asian experience, including the sleepy small towns and quiet and remote mountain temples. But that is gone now, replaced by cheap-looking high rise apartments and pale, second-rate imitations of Western culture.
I cannot agree with the statement that language or cultural ignorance on the part of foreigners constitutes a problem. The main problem I find for foreign visitors is the constant and relentless, crude and pervasive in-your-face Korean cultural attitude.
> 82. Eujin
> I know I’m in a minority of one on this site but I happen
> to think that Korea is a great travel destination.
>
> I seem to be the only one who thinks so on this site …
Uhhmm Eujin, have you never read ANY of my posts on this blog? (non-political threads) Nor any of the on-the-road posts from our esteemed Great-Blog-Leader hizownself? And there are in fact plenty of others. For more than a few of us, the amazing sites and cultural happenings are at least half the reason we’re here (or used to be).
It’s just that, as noted above, this topic has come up many times before, and arguing with / slapping down the “Korea has nothing to see or do” idiots — who either have sociopathic emotional / ideological problems or have just never been anywhere other than home, work and itaewon bars — is no longer worth the effort.
Tho what many of the negative posters above are saying is not that the K doesn’t have great stuff, it’s that it’s not promoted, set-up, staffed, offered & administrated well, esp for newbie tourists — and there is general agreement on that; it’s hard to deny.
Look around outside of downtown and the sleaze-joints, you’ll find many non-Koreans who enjoy the excellent places as much as you do — you’ll be less-likely to find them slagging Korea on blog-comment-pages, because they have Lives.
“Look around outside of downtown and the sleaze-joints, you’ll find many non-Koreans who enjoy the excellent places as much as you do — you’ll be less-likely to find them slagging Korea on blog-comment-pages, because they have Lives.”
The tourist numbers — of Koreans going abroad and non-Koreans visiting Korea — speak for themselves. Most of the comments are negative because that’s what people feel. Check out discussions about tourism elsewhere and you will not find the degree of negativity associated with Korea. Koreans are to blame for that, not tourists or expats.
When your number one national treasure burns down due to your own incompetence at protecting it, asking why you fail at tourism makes you look all the more foolish.
How about Korea as a cycling destination? I’ve traveled extensively around the country, and the best trip I’ve taken–by far–was by bicycle. The landscape is simply beautiful, and once you escape the car-choked cities, Korea’s country roads are ideal for touring. Granted, appealing to this niche market won’t revolutionize the travel industry. But IMHO there’s no better way to experience this country.
All I ask is this: please, Korea, do not pave over and “develop” your entire country in a vain effort to attract foreigners. Look at the destruction of Jeju: completely counter-productive.