Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bingo]

An article in today's Korea Times acknowledges that Korea is an unpopular tourist spot for Westerners. And, of course, it gets the explanations wrong. It mentions language difficulties, etc. without mentioning that most Westerners can't speak Chinese or Japanese either - but they visit those countries.

In my estimation, there are several reasons people don't visit Korea.

The whole North Korean thing is a no-brainer. But another is that thousands of foreigners work here and relay back endless negative stories about rudeness, pollution, horking on the street, snorting, rudeness, litter, etc. And of course there's the great deal of negativity that builds up (and is communicated to family and friends back home) by the unscrupulous behaviour of hogwan owners. There is also the dog meat issue, and the anti-American demonstrations that occur every weekend. And finally, there's the whole dishonest promotion of locations like "Beautiful Incheon" etc that cause great dismay to people who've actually visited Incheon. The pollution, rudeness, spitting, spitting and more spitting all need to be addressed.

If Korea wants to attract more Western tourists they need to, literally, clean up their act. Some things can be addressed quite readily. The tourism minister can make an appeal to people to drive more civilly, quite bumping into people, quit littering, quit horking, and snorting and spitting.
Such a campaign could make a difference very quickly. The issues of dishonest hogwan owners, pollution, etc. will take a bit longer.

[jinju]

Do you think NK is really an issue? I doubt it.

The problem is that Korea just isnt known. Thats it. Everyone knows about Japan. Everyone knows the Great Wall of China. But what do people know about Korea? Korea doesnt have the cultural cache to pull people here. Nor does Korea have the climate to attract tourists who want to hang out on baches. In short, Korea is little known and doesnt seem as exotic as other places. So nobody comes here

I dont think the NK situation has any influence on TRAVELLERS nor do I think a few disgruntled teachers have any influence either.

[mrsquirrel]

Japan has always been an exciting exotic place to visit. The Crazy Japanese

China has the great wall even if it does have spitting and hawking on the street and the rudeness. However people sort of accept that.

Korea - not really sure what it has. I actually bought the Lonely Planet for Korea - first time I have ever bought a guide book. It's a pretty crappy book. A few temples and that is about it. Lotte World, Everland. Not sure what else.

I don't think the foreigners who work here are really going to have that great an impact on the tourist industry. Thailand has it's fair share of foreigners complaining about all the shite that goes on there and people still flock to the country.

If you want to go to an exotic country with mountains and four seasons you have Japan or America.

If you want beaches you have the rest of SEA. If you want grime, pollution and missing limbs you have India.

Korea is stuck in the middle.

[RACETRAITOR]

I think the OP is way off, although North Korea most likely does scare away a lot of tourists.

The main reason people don't come here is probably just they don't know what the country has. They don't know what Koreans are like, or how modern the country is. And Japan and China seem a whole lot more exotic.

I'm just gonna come out and say I don't care if there aren't a lot of gorbies coming here. I don't earn a cent from the tourism industry and I don't like having tourists everywhere.

[SPINOZA]

[unknown9398]

Countries that successfully draw tourists work at it. They spend millions to develop their image, promote their best qualities, and give tourists something to do. Koreans can achieve almost anything they set their collective mind to, but it would take a miracle for Korea to develop significant tourism approaching the level of Japan.

After all, there's no compelling reason to come to Korea. There's no Great Wall, no Eiffel Tower, no Parthenon...no Mt. Fuji. What's it known for around the world? What would draw them in? Tourists aren't champing at the bit to eat kim-chi or visit the DMZ.

Korea is not a scenic country, and has few, if any, natural wonders. Nor is it going out of it's way to preserve the environment. Frankly, I find it visually unappealing and suspect that most non-Koreans would agree.

They're not exactly welcoming to foreigners. Xenophobia and tourism are not a great mix, after all.

IMO, the proximity to the DPRK is not keeping tourists away because there's little interest in visiting Korea in the first place. But give credit where credit is due. Koreans don't make much of an effort to draw tourists, so they probably recognize that it's not an idustry that holds much promise.

[xingyiman]

THe problem is basically that Korea is for the Koreans. Honestly what is there really to do here besides going to bars and getting hammered until 6:00 Am? I live in Bangkok now a and every weeked there is always something cool to do. Koreans don't seem to want to foster an environment that would be condusive to tourist growth becasue if they did it would probably intrude upon the little sliver of cultural identity that they are holding onto with all their might. Nothing wrong with that, it's their country but doesn't make for a attractive vacation spot.

[crazy_arcade]

Overseas visitors in Japan (2006) : 7,334,300

About 30% of overseas visitors to Japan are from South Korea.

Overseas visitors in Korea (2004): 5,818,138

Now both of those numbers include not only tourists, but also teachers, migrant workers, fly by the night businessmen etc.

Now let's take a look at some other countries' figures for tourism ONLY for 2006:

France: 75 million
Spain: 50 million
China: 33 million
Thailand: 10 million

source: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0198352.html

So why are people on here comparing tourism in Japan to tourism in Korea when, quite obviously, neither are considered tourist destinations at all.

[pkang0202]

Why go to Korea where there are so many other alternatives? Think about it.

You got:

The US (New York, Hawaii, LA)
Europe (Germany, Spain, France, Italy, UK are the big 5 people want to see)
Japan
Australia (great barrier reef and Sydney)
Taiwan or Singapore
South America (Rio de Janeiro, Costa Rica)
and a ton of other destinations

No one comes here because the average Westerner saves their money and visits one of those places. Maybe 2 of those places if they are well off.

Korea can pump their entire GDP into promoting their country for tourism. Its never, ever going to break into the top 10 places to go on vacation.

I'll make an analogy to the State of Virginia in the US. Virginia has Jamestown, the first permanent settlement in the US. Williamsburg. Countless battlefields that were critical in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Its the more historically right state in the US. If you want to learn about the US, you go to Virginia. Yet, everyone that comes to the US goes to New York or LA or Washington DC.

Virginia could pump every penny into promoting tourism. Its never going to unseat New York City , Yellowstone, Grand Canyons, Disney World, etc...

[Harpeau]

Seems like a no brainer to me.

You could go to Thailand:


or to Busan:

[unknown9398]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

How many foreigners have worked here as teachers? Perhaps 100,000 to 200,000? How many people could those influcence? One or two million? How many of those were planning holidays to Korea that they switched becasue of negative stories? A few hundred? How many of those came to visit Korea because we're here? A few thousand? If anything, that's bringing about an increase in tourists.

Let's face it - we're not that important. Neither is Korea - the real reason why so few people come here, along with the weather.

Amongst this year's tourists were my aunt and uncle, visiting for one day on an Asian cruise. Here's how it looked from their perspective.

Pros:

- The best, fastest immigration check they went through in Asia, according to them.
- The new cruise terminal is very nice and effecient.
- Reasonably interesting sites. They were especially impressed with the Busan cable car.
- Seeing Korea from an everyday level. We went to a PC-bang to check emails and they couldn't believe how cheap it was, free tea included, especially compared to the cruise ship. I took them on the subway and we strolled through some ordinary, off-the-beat streets. Of course they would have done none of that if I wasn't with them.
- They loved the bulgogi we had, and thought that cooking at the table was great fun.
- Ground transportation was cheap and fast.
- They loved the market - at least my aunt did, taking heaps of pics.

Cons:

- The taxi drivers tried to rip us off at the terminal, and if it weren't for me they would have.
- It took us forever to find a Korean restaurant where we didn't have to sit on the floor.
- Unless you have a newphew living 1 1/2 hours away you'd have to take a rip-off bus tour and waste half your time as geriatrics got on and off the bus.
- One idiot hassled us, I think trying to sell an over-priced taxi ride back to the terminal.
- No one spoke any English anywhere, apart from the head taxi driver trying to rip people off.
- Authentic Korean things were often easy to miss.

Here's where I think that Koreans really miss the boat: they don't realise that they're actually quite interesting people who don't have a lot of interesting sites in their country. I think I could put on a really interesting tour of my town that would appeal to a lot of people. But, there are some things that are just so missing. Could one of the galbi restaurants not set up a small section with tables and chairs? Could the history museum not get one of the local English teachers to translate the signs and then get one of the local FTs to edit them? If they could jsut do the little things like that Korea could be so interesting. Instead they're always trying to put on such a sanatised show.

[jg]

[SPINOZA]

Nationmaster, Tourist arrivals: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_tou_arr-economy-tourist-arrivals

Korea isn't even on there (153 entries, naturally including world-renowned tourist hotbeds like Chad and Angola), which is a piss poor show. Mind you, it must say something for the Korean economy if it can be the 11th biggest in the world and make such a pittance from tourism.

I do think Korea has areas of outstanding natural beauty and generally it's a nice place to live, but it's not touristy and also it's nextdoor to two very interesting countries. Analogously, why is the US #2 and Canada #9? Why is the UK #5 and Ireland #21? Why is Spain #3 and Portugal #50? No disrespect intended to Ireland, Portugal or Canada, but if you're in that part of the world and you're weighing up US v Canada, NYC v Montreal, England vs Belgium, it's the former every time. Same with Korea vs Japan/China.

[kurva anjad]