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[garykasparov]

Festivals Lack Foreign Language Web Sites

By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

Each year since 1995, the government has selected representative festivals to attract more foreign tourists but 55 percent of them picked up for this year have been run without foreign language websites, the most influential information source for foreign nationals.

Due to the lack of online foreign language information, it has been hardly impossible for foreign visitors to know about these events.

According to Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), more than 52.1 percent of inbound tourists gained information on Korea through websites in 2006.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) last December selected a total of 56 festivals out of 1,200 candidate events across the country as festivals representing Korea for this year.

The 56 events are categorized into four levels ― best, excellent, recommendable and reserved ― depending on how well they are prepared to attract local and foreign tourists. It picked seven as best; 10, excellent; 17, recommendable; and 20 as reserved festivals. It earmarked about $6 million in subsidies to finance the events.

However, The Korea Times recently found that 30 out of the 56 selected festivals or 55 percent of them do not run Websites in foreign languages, including one picked as a ``best'' festival.

Several festivals with enough potential to attract foreign visitors also have no homepages in foreign languages.

Geumsan Ginseng Festival (www.geumsan.go.kr/festival/), which is held in every September in Geumsan, South Chungcheong Province, was designated as a ``best'' festival for 2008. But the only information on its promotional Website is in Korean.

``Roughly 940,000 people visited the event last year. But only 6,800 people or merely 0.72 percent were foreign tourists,'' Kil Bong-kyeun, a Geumsan county official, told The Korea Times. ``It was amazing that the local festival promoting itself overseas without a foreign language Website drew around 7,000 foreigners. We know the number will increase should the festival open a Website in other languages.''

Jarasum International Jazz Festival (www.jarasumjazz.com/), held in September on Jara island in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, has taken root as one of the most commercially successful festivals, drawing more than 100,000 visitors including numerous foreign tourists in 2007. The event also generated $11 million in revenue, according to the county. But it only has a Korean language homepage. Worse, it is shut down.

Busan Jagalchi Festival (www.ijagalchi.co.kr/) held in October in Busan, Korea's No. 1 port and the largest fish market in East Asia, runs its information Website in English, Japanese and Chinese ― but the information is outdated.

The festival's administrative committee said more than 1.8 million visited the festival last year. Nearly 5,000 or 0.27 percent of the participants were foreign nationals, but most of them learned about the festival from their Korean colleagues.

Foreign Language Website Works

The case of Andong International Mask Dance Festival (www.maskdance.com/) obviously shows how well foreign language Websites work in attracting foreign residents and tourists.

``More than 70,000 foreign visitors enjoyed the festival in 2007 alone,'' said Lee Won-woo, a Webmaster for the festival's site. ``We found most of the foreigners learned about the festival through our foreign language Website.''

The Korean folk mask festival runs its promotional website in six languages ― English, Japanese, Chinese, German, French and Spanish.

``We spent about $10,000 over three months to open the website in six foreign languages. It was worth the investment,'' Lee said.

The government is well aware of the importance of foreign language Website in promoting festivals overseas. But it has been long on talk and short on action.

``Frankly, we have run festivals only for domestic tourists. Thus, we did not feel any necessity to open Websites in foreign languages,'' said Kim Cheol, a tourism ministry official in charge of festivals. ``Furthermore, officials in provincial governments have no idea how to run promotional campaigns overseas. They are also afraid of taking part in such campaigns.''

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism organized a consultant group comprised of PR experts and tourism professors for the first time this year to hold a series of workshops and provide consulting services on overseas promotion. It earmarked $ 160 million to pay for the service.

[email protected]

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/03/117_19990.html

[Boodleheimer]

my town's 'crab festival' is still TBA -- but apparently usually in late march or early april (!!!!). the english language website still has info from 2002 on it. thanks, asshats.