Korean Job Discussion Forums

[blurgalurgalurga]

This is a spin-off of the "seen any tourists lately" thread.

What do you think Korea should do to attract more tourists?

I think rather than trying to be the Dubai of Asia, they should try to be the Ibiza, or the Amsterdam, or the Monaco.

More casinos!
Loosely enforced vice laws!
Big outdoor parties in the summer time where everbody gets sloppy and sunburnt!

A tough sell, I know.

Any other ideas? Maybe they could build an Angkor Wat somewhere in Gangwando and sandblast it to make it look old and then say 'oh, hey, look what we found! Isn't that pretty...'

Or maybe...I know! They should build an amazing canal! I love looking at canals. I subscribe to Canal Afficionado magazine...

No, really. How can they do it? How can they get people to come here instead of the other, more popular tourist destinations in Asia?

"Korea! It's like Thailand, without the creepy diddlers."
"Korea! It's like Japan, but cheaper."
"Korea! It's like...uh...China, but...uh...not really."

[bejarano-korea]

A canal from Seoul to Busan is a good idea!

[knee-highs]

how about becoming the "hub" of something?

[i4NI]

Doing more than paying probably thousands of dollars for idiotic slogans a 5 year old could think of. "Hi Seoul"... I mean come on.

It really shouldn't be that hard if they just played their cards right. When all my friends see all the pics I have put up on facebook they always say how much they want to come.

[eamo]

They need to clean the place up a bit first. Japan was able to do a lot of urban beautification. Why can't Korea?


In saying that, I've been told the the mayor of Seoul has passed a regulation which forbids developers from making huge cookie-cutter apartments developments in Seoul. From now on, apartment buildings in any one development must all differ more or less

[travelingfool]

Legalize gambling, like Macao
More promotion of medical tourism
More resorts and golf courses where regional business meetings and conferences could be held
better ski resorts
a more open market and better foreign investment policies

More promotion overseas. When I tell people I taught in both China and Korea everyone always wants to hear about China. Many people equate SK with NK.

Korea has so much potential yet they seem to be sabotaging themselves. Who knows, maybe they don't want any tourism at all.

[i4NI]

Also is it smog thats staining some of the buildings and bridges? They really need to clean that up.

[aka Dave]

[sojourner1]

Only time is going to improve Korea's situation as the old people are cogs with broken teeth slowing it down.

The culture will have to change to become more open minded, accepting, friendlier, and accommodating when it comes to providing demanded services. And it will, given time. I do believe those that are kids today will be more accommodating in catering to foreigners when it comes to service, understanding how to interact with a foreigner, and gourmetizing the Korean cuisine more to a foreigners likings similar to how the Thai did it in developing international tourism. Today's kids can and will do it due to having exposure to foreign teachers, internet, and all the trappings of globalization. They simply will be enabled and skilled to do just this due to the ESL thing, but it will require for them to become adults first while at the same time the older unaccommodating closed minded people today will have passed on. It's not that the older people are bad, they just came from the poor old Korea where they weren't educated any more than learning Hangul, Korean culture, and how to work. They grew up, lived, and worked under stressful lean conditions where they had to scavenge for food and didn't know where their next bite to eat was going to come from. Today, I still see ajummas scavenging for any useful plants and other things. And today, we come to change their country and they don't like it, but this is what the government and younger people are setting into motion so it doesn't matter as the old closed minded people will die sooner than later. Korea is indeed culturally behind while being technologically ahead. Korea is the opposite of Thailand, but that could change given 10 to 20 years time when most all of Asia will really be speaking English and understanding foreigners due to us teaching their kids today as well as developing ideologies resulting from westerization.

Korea will have to document more in English about how to get around the country and let the world better understand what to make of it. I know I've been quite baffled and even found myself lost many times when I never had these sorts of problems in most any other countries visited though I'm sure Korea is not the most confusing to navigate, but it could be a lot better. Again, it's not developed culturally, but has everything set in motion to be quite awesome in the future so it's just not time yet, but it's clear Korea has ambitions to opening itself up to the world.

Korean domestic tourism is alive and well, but it fails to include foreigners though a small handful of us make it to such unknown and undocumented places like Jeongseon, a tourist town in Gangwon with a 5 day market offering traditional wares and traditional performances where the Arirang song came from. This town is called, "a mecca of the Arirang." The Korean government is developing Gangwondo as a tourist destination, but it's still Korean national centric and doesn't yet cater to foreign tourists though it has potential and eventually will do so.

Really, there is arts and culture outside of Seoul as Jeongseon gets bus loads of tourists from Seoul on days ending in a 2 or 7, but I didn't spot one foreigner as these tours do not cater to foreigners nor advertise in English. You can actually get handicrafts there such as hemp sandals, woven read hats, baskets, and other things similar to things commonly found in the markets of SE Asia, but in simpler basic conservative designs. Tourism is still a Korean only thing despite it being tourism except what's in Seoul such as the 5 great palaces.

Korea will be a great place to tour once the old close minded people leave their jobs and the younger more educated ones fully take over in running the entire country including all the businesses catering to everyone's needs and wants.

[captain kirk]

Renacting history. Horses, cannons, bows and arrows, castle sieges, and all the craft and lore that goes with it. Make 'living history'.

Tourists could come over for a package that includes bowmaking, arrowmaking, horseriding and firing an arrow from a moving horse, ...

firing canons, firing muskets, using swords, daggers, pikes, spears...

living in 'historical villages', cooking on fires, using houses with real ondol,...

meditating with a 'warrior monk' giving meditation lessons, weekend tours from their 'historical village' as a sort of 'day off' from living anciently...

taking the bus to Seongju fortress near Seoul, Jinjuseong in Jinju, all the forts that were used in various battles throughout Korea...

harvesting wild plants, plant medecine, and so on.

An ancient cultural lifeways package. Manufacture of stone tools, fishing weirs, etc. as in the paleo/neolithic.

[Juregen]

Korea hardly has any "touristique" areas.

DMZ Wow great

Seoul the palace the summer palace yawn. they have a lot of museums, but none are comparable to the big onesi n NY or Paris or Rome.
There is also hardly any "street" culture in the sense that one can really feel "somewhere else"

They have a lot of mountains, but hikers don't have cross the ocean just to hike a hill .....

The resorts are often Mass condominiums catered at koreans, with chimchimbangs, norea bangs and a lot of nonsense.

There are some good golf courses, but 99% of the tourists hardly play golf. Those are aimed for business.

There is just nothing breathtaking that would entice people to come to Korea.

What do people remember when they go back home? "Wow that Kimchi was great!"

I know lot of people back home would first go to Japan China and other Asian countries before setting foot here, if ever, for tourism.

I was thought of developing a Tour around Korea, Temple stays. I quickly buried that idea.

[Whirlwind]

Being a wee bit less afraid of foreigners for starters.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[aka Dave]

One thing I hadn't considered. There is a very substantial ex-pat community (us!) that's a potential market for tourism. For instance, my Uni. immersion class went on an excursion to the 2nd presdential residence for our "class outing" and the foreign professors (only four of us) chose the destination. It turned out to really suck because it was super hot and humid that day and it was just miserable being outside.

However, over the four years I've been here I've never seen any tourist adverts in English.

[blaseblasphemener]

Korea is expensive; China isn't.

China has world renowned tourist attractions; Korea doesn't.

Japan is beautiful and clean; Korea isn't.

Sorry Korea, might as well focus your efforts elsewhere, because promoting tourism is a lost cause.