Korean Job Discussion Forums

[earthbound14]

The big problem Korea has isn't its image, it's really what happens when people step off that airport bus in downtown Seoul and go now WTF?

Everything is either expensive or ugly and confusing as feck to a foreign traveller. Korea never had a good back packer scene to develop a reputation and has been so closed to backpackers and travellers with wanderlust that even if they had great places....back packers just wouldn't come here (and they haven't - I've been to one foreign friendly hostel in Busan...great time, but pales in comparison to what you can experience all over the world).

The beaches are pretty but really not foreigner friendly and Korean style building in and around its wonderful areas is generally pretty ghetto. If it isn't ghetto then its ridiculously expensive and caters strickly to Korean tastes.

It's not the brand but the infrastructure, the affordability and the general openess to foreigners that is lacking.

Korea does have many great things worth seeing and easily could play right into any back packers or world travellers trip through China and Japan. It is however a tiny, confusing, closed, dirty, expensive stop between two relative giants. Most people just skip Korea. If it was cheap, easy to get to and around and catered to some foreign tourists...people would gladly stop and sample the local culture. Once people had a taste they would be likely to tell their friends and build a reputation.

Korea has the second largest (goes out the furthest) tide in the world, has incredible mud flats (great for your skin and bathing in - only one mud bath house in all of Korea with 1 tub), great beach BBQs (shell fish and shrimp while watching the sun set over the ocean).

Korea has a pretty uniques island and volcanoe with some pretty interesting local culture, Jeju, but it's expensive as feck. Why bother, go to Thailand. Jeju has an incredible amount to offer if it were priced accordingly.

Korean parks are really amazing considering what happened to this country. Their parks department really needs a hand shake. Although treed streets in Seoul might be something they over looked.

The west sea is fantastic and drives down the coast are amazing at first light. It is incredibly rocky and looks just like an ancient Korean painting. However, the highway has been cut apart by a new expressway, renting a car in Korea is beyond expensive, hotels along the coast are kind of crap.

Korean tourist resorts have all the charm of a vending machine.
Korean tourism seems to be dead set on creating more and bigger resorts that are nothing short of sub par (by western standards) and ridiculously expensive and crowded. Hotels in Seoul with pools are insanely over priced. Motels are great, but finding one can be tricky if you don't know your way around. Over all there is really a lack of charm in modern Korea.

Which is sad, because Korea has some of the most charming temples, mountains, sea side views, historical homes, art, culture...Korean history and landscape are charm incarnate. It surely isn't grand. It surely isn't royal. It surely isn't magnificent....and that is why it is lovely. But all that charm is lost under the concrete of rapid development and poor planning. Over the last 50 years Koreans have lost sight of the incredible charm they do have. They are still really cute, adorable, polite, friendly, amazing people who can be very charming to be around when they aren't being total balli balli asswipes.

Koreans probably need to re-invent their own image and build it from the ground up. The biggest flaw with Korea has been its greatest virtue. It's rush rush get 'er done attitude. Korea spewed concrete all over in an orgy of becoming new. I don't think it's really us that needs convincing, but rather Koreans themselves. They need to see that they have an incredible country, rather than just re-iterating what some text book told them to do. They need to feel it, like they feel soju and samgyeopsal on a Friday night with friends after work. Cause they are a lively people and it's really that buzz of Soju while eating some pretty tasty food with friends on hot summer nights that has kept me hooked on Korea. It's the temples I visit, the traditional Korean homes I view, the killer tea I drink (when Ican find a nice place that sells it), the lovely walks in the mountains, the beaches I have strolled down after eating some mighty tasty shrimp and the kind Koreans who have taken me in to share their food that have given me the experiences I've been looking for, but Korean tourism can take a flying leap off the 63 blg.

[RACETRAITOR]

[Yangachi]

[c_malinow]

Yeah, I really like Korean movies, although most of them are some of the most horific and violent movies I have ever seen! Maybe this says something about their invertive violent history and until recently being invaded by Japan and the north?

[TheUrbanMyth]

[NaD00D00]

I know this is redundant, but Korea is so superficial.
The reason why nobody takes this country seriously is because it doesn't even take itself seriously. Everything is for show. There's no substance.

I mean, if the country were a kick-ass place to come to, they wouldn't need all this "marketing" bs; these kinds of things speak for themselves.

It's like, a country has to have on of two things: something special that makes the place worth visiting, or treating visitors in a way that they feel special while they're visiting, right? With regards to the former, I feel as if there isn't one, concrete thing where everyone is like, "You HAVE to see this if you go to Korea." And we all know how it is with the latter...

[Adventurer]

[stevieg4ever]

Exactly. Clearly demonstrating his ignorance of both Nepal and Thailand.

[superacidjax]

Koreans are getting well known in the United States though -- for their scientific misconduct, specifically Hwang Woo-Suk. They are even more well known for Hwang's lack of ethics than they are for cloning the first dog. Koreans also are pretty well known in many parts of the US for letting US beef rot on the docks and for the violent anti-American riots. Ditto for rice and FTA protests.. They're also known for going bonkers over a stupid speed-skating race. Their Sea of Japan, Liancourt Rocks and other controversies are getting more press time that than kimchi and kalbi.

For Korea to become a tourist destination of choice, they're going to have to stop spitting and crying over every perceived slight. They seem to be international crybabies.

[greedy_bones]

[Keepongoing]

To begin with I seriously doubt that Korean cuisine would reach anywhere near the top 5. They have so many other great cuisines to compete with. I even think that Vietnamese has beat them out. Here is a list of what I believe are the world top cuisines:

Chinese
Italian
Mexican
Thai
Indian
Japanese
German
French
Turkish-kebab
Vietnamese-Pho


I doubt that Korea will ever have a high ranking because I doubt it will ever be a preferred tourist destinarion, and I think these go hand-in-hand. I think they are too xenophobic to accommodate much tourism and they would certainly never be a tourist mecca like Thailand which atrers to almost every whim and is so hospitable.

I have lived in Asia for 24 years and have lived in 3 Asian countires. Comapred to my favorite destinations, Korea is boring and not so friendly. Of course, I work here, but I worked in Thailand and Hong Kong as well and love those places. Korea is good for work, but lacks in having the energy, food and drama of Hong Kong and the beaches, weather, hospitality and laid-backness of Thailand.

Expensive advertising campaigns will prove ineffective if what is being advertised does not reflect the true psyche of the place.