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ed4444
Joined: 12 Oct 2004
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 Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 3:32 am Post subject: Overseas Visitors Say Korea Is Boring |
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Real Reality must have missed this one today.
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2006080179228
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There was nowhere to go except for the hotel and the airport.�
To Bill Wesley (54) from England, who does a trading business, Korea was a �boring country� with nowhere to go after work.
Mr. Wesley complained that most of the major tourist attractions like Deoksugung closed at 6:00 p.m., and the products at the department stores were ridiculously expensive.
Japanese tourist Masahiro Yoshito (37) spent most of his 4-day visit buying Chinese �imitation� designer products at Dongdaemun Market in Seoul. �After I visited a few palaces, there was nowhere else to go in Seoul,� he said. �The only upside of visiting Korea was the easy access to imitation products.�
Work in Korea, Pleasure in Other Countries � All the Money Being Spent in Australia and Thailand-
Recently, the Bank of Korea stated the main reason for the last half year�s (January � June) balance of current accounts going into the red for the first time in nine years is the tourism balance, which has been in the red for 60 months running.
In fact, the money spent by Koreans from January to May of this year in foreign countries increased by 15 percent, but the money spent in Korea by foreigners during the same period decreased by 4.5 percent.
Why Is This Happening?-
We asked VISA to analyze �The Monetary Amount of Credit Card Transactions of Foreign Visitors in the Asia-Pacific Region during the Year 2005 by Countries.� VISA is the world�s largest credit card company with a market share in the Asia-Pacific credit card market of over 60 percent.
The results of this analysis show that 45 percent of the credit card transactions by foreigners in Korea were at hotels ($306 million) and duty-free shops ($196 million). This means that almost half of the cases in which foreigners used their credit cards were for sleeping in hotels and shopping at airport duty-free shops before leaving the country.
In Korea, there aren�t very many places for foreigners to spend money either. VISA categorized the places in which credit cards were used into about 600 categories, and the top 10 categories comprised over 78 percent of the total in Korea.
Contrastingly, the top 10 comprised only 17 percent in Singapore, 21.8 percent in Hong Kong, and 22.8 percent in Australia.
Outside the range of the 10 Asia-Pacific countries analyzed in this report, the country with the largest credit card transaction amount by foreigners was Australia with $4.5 billion, with Thailand ($2.8 billion), China ($2.8 billion), Hong Kong ($2.2 billion), and Japan ($1.7 billion) following behind.
The total for Korea was only $1.1 billion, a mere quarter of Australia�s.
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:04 am Post subject: |
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I really don't understand this. Most Korean cities of any size have a wide range of Mexicana Chicken, Pelicana Chicken, BBQ Chicken and Donky Chicken places to entice diners. As for touring hotspots, my little town has a scum-covered pond right downtown that school kids from miles around ride buses to see. (I think the attraction is that it is square, but it could be the floating ramyeon bowls.) Just up the road is the oldest swamp in Korea. Nearby is a 300 year old ice house (Chosen era refrigerator). Breath-taking.
Why people would take their tourist money elsewhere, I don't understand. |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:30 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
I really don't understand this. Most Korean cities of any size have a wide range of Mexicana Chicken, Pelicana Chicken, BBQ Chicken and Donky Chicken places to entice diners. As for touring hotspots, my little town has a scum-covered pond right downtown that school kids from miles around ride buses to see. (I think the attraction is that it is square, but it could be the floating ramyeon bowls.) Just up the road is the oldest swamp in Korea. Nearby is a 300 year old ice house (Chosen era refrigerator). Breath-taking.
Why people would take their tourist money elsewhere, I don't understand. |
Sorry to get off topic, but can you tell me where you are in Korea? I would really like to see that ice house. Does it have ice in it? I like ramyeon too, that sounds cool. |
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cerulean808
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:39 am Post subject: |
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| Give them a break. They had their historical heritage systematically looted then the entire peninsula pulverised. They've only just got back on their feet. |
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RACETRAITOR
Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:57 am Post subject: |
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Last week my best friend and his wife came to visit me for seven days. They had a great time and ended up not having enough time to do everything.
The worst complaint I've ever heard from anyone visiting me was that the subway system was too intimidating, but that guy had never been to Tokyo. |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:00 am Post subject: |
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| Korea's got some interesting little corners, no doubt. The problem is that the KNTO has some strange ideas about what tourists might want, so all that gets promoted are shopping areas and sites where Korean dramas were shot. |
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Dazed and Confused
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:05 am Post subject: |
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My mother loves this place and wants to move here permanently. 
She spends a ton of money here everytime she visits. I've never seen one person buy so many blankets at once and then she goes to the markets and buys loads of crap there!  Then she goes home and raves to her friends about how wonderful Korea is and all they can ask is "How many pairs of (fake)Nike shoes did you buy for $10?" because that's what people used to do in the early 80's.  |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:11 am Post subject: |
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| peppermint wrote: |
| Korea's got some interesting little corners, no doubt. The problem is that the KNTO has some strange ideas about what tourists might want, so all that gets promoted are shopping areas and sites where Korean dramas were shot. |
Yeah. You need someone to show you the good galbi joints, bars, scenic areas (not a lot of those but there are a few), markets etc....
....in all fairness, Korea can't compete with other East-Asian countries for tourism. They don't seem to have that, 'what do tourists want?' frame of mind. They're too busy concentrating on industry. |
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Billy Pilgrim
Joined: 08 Sep 2004
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:18 am Post subject: |
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It is a boring place to go for tourists who want some sightseeing, that's for sure. I wouldn't recommend it to any of my family for a trip.
Friends in their 20s looking for cheap alcohol and bar-hopping however..... |
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StAxX SOuL
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Location: London
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:25 am Post subject: |
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LOL...
Problem is, Korea is just too inaccessible to foreigners... I'd still be wondering how I'm going to see some of the things in areas other than Seoul, if it wasn't for my friends owning cars... and ultimately in comparison to many other nations there's not a huge amount of attractions to lure people here...
If more importance was bestowed on free thinking and creativity then things might be different because Koreans would be able to market things in ways other than [enter Korean celebrity name here] wears it... after 5 months here I still wouldn't recognise one if they were sat across from me at an Apgujeong cafe...
Can't agree with old folk though about nothing at all to do in the evening... Korea is so big on early evening and night culture... compared to the UK, there is much more to do after work... all that remains to do in the UK after work is retire in front of the TV or catch up with your friends at a bar... stores close at a reasonable hour, and there's very little you can do to be productive once you finish work |
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heydelores
Joined: 24 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 7:10 am Post subject: |
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After reading this part:
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| Japanese tourist Masahiro *beep* (37) |
I was really curious as to what this person's last name is!
Yosh!to.
Profanity filter doesn't like that one! |
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ajuma
Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 7:11 am Post subject: |
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[quote="RACETRAITOR"]Last week my best friend and his wife came to visit me for seven days. They had a great time and ended up not having enough time to do everything.
The worst complaint I've ever heard from anyone visiting me was that the subway system was too intimidating, but that guy had never been to Tokyo.[/quote]
They should try New York City subways! My son (who has used subways in many countries) told me that he was most confused by the NYC subway system...and everything THERE is in English!!
I think a lot of the problem is that most people don't get out of Seoul. Sure, Seoul has some interesting things, but Sorak-san, Andong, K/Gyung-ju, Busan, Uulong-do and other islands have quite a different variety of "tourist" type things than Seoul does.
The KNTO needs to organize 3-4 day trips to places outside of Seoul. And NOT just to temples. IMHO, if you've seen one temple, you've seen them all! |
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Ilsanman
Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Bucheon, Korea
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 7:41 am Post subject: yes |
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Did you forget Two-Two Chicken? And Kyochon Chicken? Don't diss it. It's a Traditional Korean dish.
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
I really don't understand this. Most Korean cities of any size have a wide range of Mexicana Chicken, Pelicana Chicken, BBQ Chicken and Donky Chicken places to entice diners. As for touring hotspots, my little town has a scum-covered pond right downtown that school kids from miles around ride buses to see. (I think the attraction is that it is square, but it could be the floating ramyeon bowls.) Just up the road is the oldest swamp in Korea. Nearby is a 300 year old ice house (Chosen era refrigerator). Breath-taking.
Why people would take their tourist money elsewhere, I don't understand. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:29 am Post subject: |
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| peppermint wrote: |
| Korea's got some interesting little corners, no doubt. The problem is that the KNTO has some strange ideas about what tourists might want, so all that gets promoted are shopping areas and sites where Korean dramas were shot. |
That's what the Japanese and Chinese want, isn't it? And they're the majority of the tourists. |
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Hyeon Een
Joined: 24 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:35 am Post subject: |
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| ajuma wrote: |
The KNTO needs to organize 3-4 day trips to places outside of Seoul. And NOT just to temples. IMHO, if you've seen one temple, you've seen them all! |
The KNTO needs to get its head out of its ass. If foreign businessmen can't find fun in Seoul its because the KNTO isn't offering enough trips to the DMZ, 안마s and juicy bars. The temples and palaces may close at night, but the 'night' doesn't close at night. |
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