Korean Job Discussion Forums

[uklathemock]

The World Economic Forum (WEF) released its fourth edition of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) Tuesday and the biennial report ranked Korea 32nd with 4.71 points out of 10, one notch lower than two years ago.

Except for the restrooms in the Hyatt or the Shilla Hotel, my mom's biggest complaint was the vomit inducing female restrooms.

[BoholDiver]

Korea seems to want a high ranking in everything but can't have it all. I don't see tourism ever being big in Korea. They can improve in some areas, but they will never get 20% of the numbers a country like Thailand gets. No matter what they do.

Let's see why. Any number of reasons could account for this.

1. Weather. The beach season is too short. 2 months doesn't cut it and when you go to Haeundae and you have to fight to get 1 square metre to put your towel down, that does nothing for tourism. There are some nice beaches on local islands but most people don't know how to get there. Skiing season is also short and unremarkable as compared to many other countries.

2. Food: Sorry to say, you K food lovers. It does not get many tourists for Korea. Once again, they have their fans, but not anywhere close to how many Thai or Indian food has.

3. Lack of thing to see. Even when I was a fresh-faced newbie, I enjoyed the sights but when comparied to other countries, they're sort of...mediocre.

4. Prices: Not overly expensive really, as comparoed to Europe or Japan, but not overly cheap either. These 'Korean wave' fans in SE Asia for the large part could not afford to come here, or to stay long.

Korea has many things going for it too, but they don't do many things better than everyone else. Their rail/bus system is great, but to go where? Incheon Airport is good, but you only pass through to get your luggage and leave. Not an important factor.

[seoulsucker]

[sigmundsmith]

It was posted on here that a certain year (relatively recent) that Korea received about 5 million tourists for that given year.

Now, I'm going to put my own personal hypothetical here and say that the majority of tourists were from China and Japan. And what do they mainly do? Most likely go to places like MyeongDong and Yongsan because for Japan the conversion rate is great in purchasing power and for China they have great access to many international products.

I may be generalizing here but I don't see too many tourist buses zooming around the country full of European/Anglo-Saxon tourists like you would see in China and Japan, and many other Asian countries.

I enjoy living in Korea, like the food and the people but as a tourist destination they are lacking when competing for desired holiday makers.

[Yaya]

Korea could do everything right in tourist infrastructure and operations, and it still wouldn't get the volume of tourists Thailand and other countries have.

Korea has a few things worth seeing like sites in Gyeongju but the rest of the world seems more interested in China or Japan when it comes to Northeast Asia. I remember taking this Chinese-American girl to a museum inside Gyeongbuk Palace and she was like, "Ehh..." because the stuff was so similar to that of China.

And of course, the worst part is, Korea cannot punch itself out of a paper bag when it comes to tourism. That weird ex-Moonie German who heads the Korea Tourism Organization has no idea of what he's doing (he reportedly got the job because he kissed the president's butt and attended the same church) and despite program after program, tourism in Korea fails to deliver on so many levels.

[Steelrails]

[eamo]

Going on an Asian vacation and choosing Korea would be like going on a European vacation and choosing Croatia. You might well have a nice time and be pleasantly surprised......but why did you choose to skip on France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Netherlands........?

[bossface]

here's the best way to boost Korean tourism -

ban Korean package tours for one year.

no international traveler in SE Asia/Europe/Australia/wherever sees a huge group of Korean package tourists acting like total asshats and thinks to himself "i want to visit these people's homeland." the rare Korean independent travlers that i've met on the road have always been really cool, but the package tourists act like cartoon characters.

[BoholDiver]

And Chinese are famous for good manners, right? They have no problem getting tourists.

5 million for a year? I wonder about those numbers. If you include English teachers who go in and out on vacation, US soliders and stuff, the numbers are misleading.

I shudder to think what would happen if those tours were stopped. My wife had to help some ignorant ajumma in Manila who didn't know how to fill out a departure card.

Agreed about the Croatia comment. It is always good to add Korea to your backpacking tour, but to make it your sole destination, you might walk away saying 'I wish I'd gone to Thailand'.

[geldedgoat]

I'm actually surprised it ranks that highly. Don't get me wrong... there's plenty I love about Korea, including the sightseeing opportunities. Unfortunately, in order to fill the average two week vacation with interesting things to see and do, you'd have to pack your stuff up and change cities every day or two... and do so during the two weeks of nice weather in the spring and fall.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

If they were going to really try to attract tourists, their best bet would probably be to build some sort of incredibly big structure or theme park... maybe the world's biggest movie screen or something.

But to be honest, I'd have a hard time believing that they could come up with something that would appeal to everyone. They'd probably just come up with something really weird that would only appeal to Koreans, with the main source of that limited appeal being that other Koreans made it... and they'd blame the rest of the world for not liking it.

[geldedgoat]

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

^^I often suspect that there are secretly hundreds of absolutely amazing things to see and do here, but they are hidden, because the Koreans think that if the foreigners saw them, they would all want to go there and wreck them... just like the Boryeong mud festival.

[BoholDiver]

All I ever see is posters for sweet potato festivals and stuff like that. Who does that attract?

[chris_J2]