For tourists, Korea has more than just kimchi

Change of guard ceremony at Deoksugung (palace)
On Oct. 14, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Association declared "Visit Korea Years 2010 through 2012" with a view to attracting 10 million foreign tourists a year. About 7 million inbound tourists visited Korea in 2007. What should Korea do to attain the goal of attracting 3 million more foreign tourists per year? Foreign tourists visiting Myeong-dong and Insa-dong, two renowned attractions in Seoul, may provide clues to the answer.

The main street in Myeong-dong was wet on the afternoon of Oct. 23 with rain that had fallen after a long drought. It was not as crowded as usual, probably due to the wet pavement. But there were more Japanese tourists than ever before. As the Korean tour guide for a group of Japanese high school girl students quipped, it looked as if Myeong-dong were like a street in Tokyo. The yen strengthened against the won that day, exceeding 1,400 won per 100 yen. This means a Japanese tourist could eat one more serving of bulgogi (grilled seasoned beef) for the same amount of money he or she had paid in 2007.

"This is my first visit to Seoul. I visited a duty-free shop and the Namdaemun Market yesterday. I'm going to see a performance of Jump (a non–verbal stage show based on the traditional movements of taekwondo) today", Mai Suzuki, a 24-year-old office worker, said. What she did first during her first visit to Korea was go shopping. She said, "Of course, there are a lot of accessories in Japan. But it seems that Namdaemun Market has a wider variety. It was good to see all the shops and restaurants full of life and vitality".


Japanese high school students shopping in Myeong-dong
She added that she wanted to buy "cosmetics, dried laver and kimchi". Accompanied by a friend, Suzuki said, "I had hoped to see a performance of the famous Nanta (a non-verbal percussion performance). But unfortunately, tickets were sold out, so I chose a similar performance". Taking a tourism magazine entitled Seoul out of her shopping bag, she and her friend vanished into the crowd, looking for tourist attractions they had selected.

That day, Myeong-dong was particularly bustling with Japanese high school girls. On their traditional field trips, five to six Japanese students walked around to visit attractions in Seoul, including Myeong-dong, Daehangno and COEX mall, under the guidance of one Korean tour guide. The Myeong-dong area turned indigo, as Japanese schoolgirls in their white blouses, dark-blue uniform skirts, and uniform stockings and shoes walked around in groups laughing and speaking in Japanese.

Japanese tourists on increase due to strong yen

A Korean travel agent said, "Around this time of year is field trip season for Japanese middle and high school students. This is also the time when most Japanese travel overseas. In addition, thanks to the strong yen, it seems that the number of inbound Japanese tourists will likely increase for the time being".


Insa-dong
There were three men engaged in idle chitchat standing in the center of Myeong-dong's main street. They were high school teachers taking students for a field trip from Moyamadai High School in Kanagawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. Their 250 or so students had scattered around the nearby area.

"We asked a local travel agency in Japan to arrange our travel schedule. On the first day, we're going to tour the downtown Seoul area, including Gyeongbok Palace, Jongmyo Shrine, Myeong-dong, and Namdaemun Market. Tomorrow, we're visiting an observatory overlooking North Korea at the truce village of Panmunjom. Until last year, our school had mostly gone on field trips to Okinawa. This is the first time we have ever come to Korea. We were motivated by Cheonggang High School in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, with which our school has maintained exchange programs.."., said Tetsuya Kawagishi (41), a burly crew-cut physical education teacher.

Kagaku Furuyama (35), a history teacher, made a comparison between traditional architectural styles of Korea and Japan. He said, "This morning, we visited Gyeongbok Palace. It looked much bigger and more magnificent than the Shinto shrine in Ishikawa. The colors of "dancheong" (traditional patterns and pictures) on eaves and ceilings at the palace looked more luxurious and more exquisite than those in Japan".

Noboru Matsumoto (50), the oldest of the three Japanese teachers, said, "This is my first visit to Korea. I'm surprised to see traffic is heavier than I had expected. As befits a metropolis, Seoul provides exciting sights everywhere I go".


Namdaemun Market
Travel agencies are of the view that the majority of the recent Japanese tourists are female office workers in their 20s and 30s. The tourism pattern of the Japanese visitors has also greatly changed. In the past, they just followed flag-waving tour guides. But now many of them take the trouble to look for tourist attractions and restaurants after finding information in magazines or guidebooks.

According to the outcome of a survey conducted by the Korea Tourism Organization in the first half of 2008, inbound tourists are visiting Korea to taste dishes, visit tourist attractions near Seoul, such as the demilitarized zone (or DMZ, the line separating the two Koreas) or the film set locations for the famous Korean soap opera "Winter Sonata" in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do (province), go shopping, and go to historic relics. By contrast, a visit to "natural scenic spots" receives lower priority. The survey was conducted on 5,862 foreigners who have visited Korea this year.

In fact, Korea is not as blessed with huge cultural relics and natural tourist resources like China or a developed tourism infrastructure like Japan. Under these circumstances, Korea is not yet considered a must-visit area in Northeast Asia. The prevailing view in the tourism industry is in favor of building a tourism infrastructure full of unique Korean culture and traditions.


British shoppers in Insa-dong
Alex, a 26-year British tourist was looking at some letter paper made of Hanji (rice paper) at a traditional stationery shop in Insa-dong. He expressed the same sentiments, "I've come to meet a Korean friend of mine. In fact, I couldn't find much information on Korea. Today, I visited Namsan Tower, Namdaemun Market and Insa-dong. (Downtown Seoul area) is too crowded. (Insa-dong) has nothing particularly different from similar streets in Thailand or China. But the temple food I ate for lunch today was really delicious".

What tourist spots and cultural traditions are attractive to foreign visitors? It is worth lending an ear to suggestions given by a travel agent specializing in foreign visitors who want a brief stay in Korea. He said it was hard to fill a 45-seater bus every weekend only a few years earlier, but that he was now busy handling an increased number of foreign tourists who fill two to three such buses every week.

Jeju, Mt. Seorak, Busan, DMZ and Gyeongju


Dongdaemun Market
The travel agent went on to say, "Most of the inbound tourists cite similar tourist spots as their favorite destinations. They say to each other that Jeju, Mt. Seorak, Busan, the DMZ and Gyeongju are must-visit places. During stay, they usually focus on temple stay, adventure trekking and mountain climbing. Nowadays, foreigners enjoy different kinds of food. In the past, most of them enjoyed bibimbap (boiled rice with an assorted mixture of vegetables and ingredients). But now they look for kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew), doenjang jjigae (bean paste stew) and cheonggukjang (fermented soybean soup). Many vegetarians even eat pork in kimchi jjigae. This is proof that they like things uniquely Korean".

The travel agent, meanwhile, complained of "lack of communication" as the most difficult thing for foreigners traveling alone in Korea. He said, "Some famous tourist spots have signposts or mileposts with typos or mistakes in information. It's necessary to correct them before developing and marketing tourism products".

Source: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism