Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

[greedy_bones]

I think they need to push the fact that they do, in fact, have the Viking ride at Lotte World.

[mheartley]

Besides the fact that foreign films are rarely hugely popular, I don't know how much movies would help as if they're movies based on Korea (culture, history etc) there still isn't very much there, is there? That's what I see the problem to be, there's just a gaping black hole in the middle of their culture. Japan wipes the floor with them in that regard. They need a different approach, maybe they just need to splurge on tourism infastructure? Say the world's biggest ocean park, or some architecturally ridiculous building that people want to see. Otherwise there's just nothing that a whole bunch of other countries can't already do much better.

[Ilsanman]

Korea can't have its cake and eat it too.

Right now, Korea is for the Koreans. It seems they want to make it for the world, for financial gain, for recognition, or for some other reason. If they truly want to be global, soooooooooo many things have to change here. I agree, a manners campaign is necessary.

As a resident here, what turns me off so many things is that they're overcrowded. It's like on a Sunday afternoon, I go to the mountain to escape the city, and there are more people there than the city. I don't know if there is a solution to that. Depopulating Seoul would be a good start.

Incheon Airport and the surrounding area are nice and give Korea a modern image, but once you arrive in Incheon or most parts of Seoul, it's old and dirty. And not in a charming way. It's depressing. I can not even count on my fingers the number of pieces of garbage and/or gobs of spit in 1 square metre of sidewalk. Is that supposed to attract tourists, or encourage them to come back?

Korean cuisine being world top 5 is a joke. I am not a fan of Korean food, but I know many people are. They have too much stiff competition from Italian, French, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, American, Greek, Mexican, Singaporean, Middle-Eastern, etc. Need I go on?

Just another useless campaign aiming at the wrong thing. Manners campaign, anti-smoking campaign, etc. Much more necessary.

[Seoul'n'Corea]

[Yangachi]

Maybe when they understand that it is not the marketing that is the problem, but the product itself, they may get somewhere in attracting tourists.

[Adventurer]

Well, what can I say about this? South Korea has cleaned up Itaewon to some extent, is providing more services to foreigners, and that's a good start. It's more effective than slogans like "Sparkling", or "The Soul of Asia". The Hi Seoul Festival is not a bad idea. It's quite all right.

I disagree with the American named Raskin who said Korea's problem is that it doesn't have the Eiffel Tower. France is not only visited because of its architecture. Is it? There are many reasons why people visit France. They are familiar with it. Also, the French, though the Parisians can be viewed as rude sometimes, supposedly have a cultural charm, is famous for its philosophers, intellectuals, and, frankly, when I was in France I had decent interactions with the French. Well, I was in the southern part.
It was easy to talk to French girls and guys my age. I was a teenager.

Jon Huer, though he sometimes says things that don't make sense, he makes more sense then Raskin here. He says that Korea seems harsh, and it's not as friendly as Nepal and Thailand. Korea is not perceived to be a friendly place to a larger percentage of visitors when compared to
those who visit those other two Asian countries just as people say Laos is friendlier than Thailand, if they've been there.

Also, though people say the hagwon industry doesn't matter, if foreign teachers were treated much better on a larger scale, they would say positive things about the country to their friends. In the same vein, if 98% of foreign women who've visited Egypt experienced sexual harassment there, it is going to hurt business. Korea has to care about how we're treated. If we're treated better as foreigners, we would be more likely to be so happy to come again and visit the country. However, with so many folks doing midnight runs back to the US or to Japan.

It's true, that Americans often have no clue where South Korea is or confuse it with North Korea. So do some Europeans. Korea could do something to correct that image and market itself on T.V.
What about marketing the Buddhist temples? Europeans and Westerners are not going to be interested in seeing Korean cathedrals. They would go to Europe for that.

If 4 out of 10 foreigners say the place has no charm as the article says what does that mean? The article didn't elaborate on that. That's so vague. It means the majority feel that the place is a positive place, but 4 out of 10 is a high number. It does mean, as the Koreans interviewed in the article said, has a lot of work to do.

Koreas has increased the amount of tourists, and it's a good way to get hard currency. They should encourage good manners campaigns, because that's important for both Koreans and foreigners that they would want to attract, and also highlight their cultural heritage sites better.
The government could coordinate with certain hotels, tourist sites to promote the country.

A focus on the fact that awesome Korea is being wronged by being viewed as not such a beautiful swan is not altruistic. Korea should genuinely want to welcome foreigners. Hey, if in an effort to impress the West, Korea does something to become a friendlier society not just to us, but to each other, I am for it. In the same vein, I thought it was nice that Turkey abolished certain backward laws to join the European Union.

I will be honest, that I think Korea would be viewed as a place with more "charm" if it treated foreigners better. I think that's what some foreign people mean when they say that. I think plenty of Koreans have a lot of charm, are very sweet and kind. Could the people welcome us more?

Sure, it would help to have the Taj Mahal or the Eiffel Tower, but Korea has plenty of sites it could market, and things it could to make foreigners feel more attracted to Korea. I do applaud the Korean Government for actually bothering to make an effort to reach out to foreigners.

Also, it's good to make the culture and language more accessible.
Korea doesn't promote its language enough. It's good that Lotte Cinema has subtitles. I didn't know that. I used to watch Indian movies with English subtitles.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[harlowethrombey]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Choosing brand names that sound Japanese and will make westerners think they're Japanese would probably be Korea's best marketing strategy.

[Ilsanman]

Having one particular sight that people flock to from around the world would certainly help their case.

I never thought of Namdaemun as anything special, but it was special to Koreans. Now that's gone.

Korean simply doesn't have anything that the rest of the world doesn't already have better and/or cheaper.

To Seoul n' Corea: If Korean food qualifies as top 5, which ones of the listed foods is it better than? I consider all of those foods to be better than Korean.

[The Gipkik]

Korean food isn't bad. If you grew up eating it, you're gonna love it. I didn't. There are too many other cuisines that get the nod before Korean food, though: Italian, French, Thai, German, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Indian, Mexican, Brazilian, Cajun, and on and on.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[RACETRAITOR]

[Yangachi]