One of three foreigners living in Korea have had unpleasant experiences while travelling in the country, reports Yonhap.
According to a recent poll of about 1,000 resident barbarians by the Korea Chamber of Commerce, 35% of respondents said they’ve experienced unpleasantness or difficulties.
Some 50% said they’ve experienced almost no such unpleasantness, while 15% said they’ve had absolutely no such unpleasantness.
As for the biggest reason for unpleasantness, 26.6% cited “language difficulties,” 20% cited traffic congestion, 18.3% pointed to insufficient tourist information and signboards, 16.6% pointed to overcharging, and 11.7% cited “unkind service.”
As for the most common tourism course, 51.0% of respondents said “cultural properties,” 35% said “major tourist sites like Jeju and Gyeongju,” 7.0% said “tourist facilities like theme parks and golf courses,” and 6.0% said “experience programs like regional festivals and temples.”
The most impressive locations mentioned were “Jeju Island” (18.1%), Insa-dong (16.9%), Gyeongju (15.7%), Seoul’s palaces (10.8%), shopping streets like Itaewon and Namdaemun Market (9.6%) and Mt. Seoraksan (6.0%).
Some 47.6% of the polled foreigners named “history and traditional culture” as the tourism content Korea should push. Another 18.4% named “experiences linked to regional festivals,” 15.5% named “natural environment,” 6.8% named “North Korea-related sites like the DMZ and Mt. Kumgangsan,” and 4.9% named “products related to the cultural industries, such as films.”
Some 68% of those asked said they’d enjoy touring Korea again, while 26.2% said they didn’t know. Only 5.8% said they didn’t want to come again.
An official with KOCHAM said that foreigners are coming to Korea in large numbers thanks to the recent rise in the exchange rate. He said Korea needed to develop unique tourism content and equip itself with friendlier and more convenient infrastructure in order to meet the increasing tourist demand.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
How about an idiot ajeoshi peasant on the bus screaming at the Korean woman who was with me because … she was with me? Does that count as an ‘unpleasant’ Korean travel experience? It’s only happened once, but I guess that puts me in the 35%.
Traffic congestion counts as an unpleasant travel experience? That’s more absurd than counting language problems. Whiners.
Yu Bum Suk has a point though. His experience was unpleasant. I had a similar experience in a cab with a female friend once. Cabby layed into her for speaking in English to a foreigner (the horror!). After some raised voices, and a quick stop, I left the taxi stealthily taking his little dashboard placard/license, which flew out the window of the next taxi that my friend and I rode away in.
#1 – I’d say that would count as one.
“An official with KOCHAM said that foreigners are coming to Korea in large numbers thanks to the recent rise in the exchange rate.”
Probably mainly Japanese . (Guess they don’t have to buy Jeju outright to enjoy it to the fullest!)
The exchange rate has little to do with encouraging foreigners already residing here – and, unless I misunderstood the article, foreign residents were the ones being surveyed in KOCHAM’s poll – to visit Korea, so I don’t know why the article ended on that note.
More friendliness and convenience is great all concerned, but foreign residents and foreign tourists (probably a majority being Japanese tourists coming over for shopping, golfing, and, in some cases, a wee bit of whoring) are very different groups.
How about the dearth of info in English on affordable hotels or the hostility in trying to book one in person? Seems like they want any foreigner who travels around here to stay in a 4 star hotel.
Do let me know whose these dolts are so that I can smack them upside the head with and aluminum baseball bat. Who the hell is impressed by a dingy street full of poor people, hookers and dodgy refuse peddlers as “impressive”? And don’t even get me started on Itaewon that’s even worse….
FML is impressed by -> “thinks”
captbbq is probably lots of fun at parties, too…
Korean markets are fun, if you’re there to enjoy them…
If one spends all of their time looking down their nose at people, one develops a sour attitude…
At 50, I’m just beginning to realize how badly I warped my own life by looking for faults in others. Please don’t make my mistakes.
Sure, I’ve had unpleasant tourist encounters in Korea. But I’ve had worse in other countries. Problem is we’re all just “Mark I, Mod. 1, Human” types…
If you are the right person inside, it doesn’t matter what circumstances are like around you, you can enjoy it… And there is (was?), I’ve heard tell, a decent Taco shop in Itaewon…
Dear setnaffa:
please reflect upon what it was you old people did to create a world which panders exclusively to youth, automatically disregarding the opinions of anyone beyond their early 30′s as irrelevant. Then, please come back and share your opinion, outrage or contrition, as the case may be. ‘preciate it!
btw, I’m 40 and also enjoy the old markets, except for the sections where tubs full of raw intestines spill over into the walkways.
I was quoted on this topic in the Korea Times article today:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2009/03/123_41462.html
I have had a pretty positive experience here too. I think we have had enough threads about tourism problems on this blog to float a sight-seeing cruise ship too.
One big problem is safety though. I almost got run over yesterday by a large delivery truck and I mean *almost* for he was driving on the sidewalk and came up behind me without honking his horn and turned right, almost running me down.
Seoul has serious safety issues with dangerous drivers and the knowledge of Hangul will not help.
Is the hangeul really such a problem? I’ve been to quite a few places where I couldn’t read the signs or speak the language and it’s rarely such a problem that it would stop me from enjoying a skiing trip. Anyone on here like to comment?
I once had a taxi driver in Pohang who didn’t understand the map I was showing him. Unfortunately for him the map was in English, but it was his home town and the water was blue and the long straight lines were roads. If you showed me a map of my hometown written in Amharic I think I could give it a pretty good go. That was irritating, but the same thing has happened to me in places like Harrisburg, Pa.. “Sorry, I don’t do maps.”
That’s pre-supposing (a) you actually have a map on hand (I usually don’t), and (b) you are only there to ski; not exactly many signs on the slopes.
I like to fly by the seat of my pants, like jump on a random bus and see where it takes me. If you don’t speak the local lingo, all kinds of problems can crop up. Even in Japan, where I can read hiragana and katakana, the kanji causes no end of grief.
You must log in to post a comment.
{ 2 trackbacks }