The following the third and last in a series of articles on the domestic tourism industry-E.D.
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Although there are things for foreign visitors to do, see and enjoy in
Korea, they would be unobtainable without systems to help people make
reservations, book transportation and get correct information.
Many foreigners here complain of an ``anti-foreign'' sentiment.
``Anti'' may be a strong expression, but it seems that in Korea there
actually are ``foreigner-unfriendly'' aspects _ systems that can make
foreigners' staying here convenient are not well prepared, for both
tourists and residents.
The No. 1 difficulty would be the communication problem.
Shown in a survey by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO): in 2001,
61.5 percent of some 10,000 foreign visitors to Korea selected a
language barrier as their top inconvenience.
The rate increased to 68.1 percent in 2003 and 70.1 percent in 2005.
``Communication can be difficult as outside Seoul there is little
knowledge of English. If you are unprepared without a Korean friend to
translate by cell phone, it can be tricky,'' said Andrea Mohammed, a
Canadian resident here.
She said she has often used the KTO's tourism information line 1330 for
information and translation and found them very helpful when her
friends were unavailable. But the useful hotline is not widely known to
people yet.
Korean-Only Signboards
Busan recently declared that it would become a ``city of English.'' The
aim came amid the fact that 1.6 million foreigners annually visit the
city, the second largest number following Seoul, but they are
inconvenienced as Busan citizens do not speak English well.
One of the projects includes putting English together with Korean on signboards and directional signs at public facilities.
It is expected to ease foreigners' inconvenience, as the KTO survey
showed the second biggest difficulty foreigners encountered here was
directional signs that they could not understand _ 23.5 percent saying
so in 2001, 33 percent in 2003, and 31.4 percent in 2005.
Most signs are written only in Korean.
``I could not believe that the map at Haeundae Subway Station does not
include English signs and directions to Haeundae Beach, which I think
is the most popular tourist attraction in Busan. But then again, most
maps in Busan's subway stations were not helpful especially to
foreigners,'' a Filipino resident named Alfonso said.
Cho Minho, a tourism professor at Hanyang University, said the nation
does not allocate much of the budget on tourism information systems.
``In Seoul, tourism information centers at major attractions in
downtown are run by the Seoul Tourism Association. But they only exist
for the sake of it, not for giving practical help to tourists,'' he
said.
Poor English Systems
Seoul and government agencies have better English signs and information
than provinces and local authorities. But still many such larger
organizations' measures to cater to foreigners are made from the
viewpoint of Koreans.
Korean Railroad (Korail) has boasted the Korea Train Express (KTX), saying the bullet train opened a new era for travel.
The authority previously had an English-version Web site designed for
people who do not know Korean language to make online reservations
after registering as a member of the site.
But when a foreigner tried to register, he or she could not find any
pages for registration. There was a notice that people can use the
reservation program after logging on, but people could not log on.
The Web site remained the same for about two years despite The Korea
Times' advice to correct it. Korail recently updated the site _ now the
reservation page has completely disappeared.
A Korail official said it is due to the difference between Korea's credit card payment system and foreign ones.
``Korail Web site requires people to put PIN numbers when using cards
for reservation, while many of foreign cards do not have such PIN
system. As the English site was made based on the Korean one, it
required foreigners to enter a PIN as well, which made them unable to
make reservation. So we removed the whole reservation program from the
site,'' the official, who wished to be unnamed, said.
He said the authority plans to develop a system that fits foreign card
payment system, but said it is hard to tell when it will be ready.
``Korean Web sites require resident registration numbers for access. If
they want more foreign visitors or more foreign investment, they should
allow foreigners to get information from their Web sites without
registration. They are not farsighted enough to consider it,'' Cho said.
Romanization of Korean words, especially names of places, also differs from organization to organization.
For example, the state-run Korail's Web site says Kyoungsang-do, while
the government orthography is Gyeongsang-do. Koreans know the two refer
to the same region, but it can be a huge difference to foreigners.
Jung-gu ward office's Web site introduces tourist attractions in the
district. If you click ``Myungdong,'' you cannot find information about
Myungdong but will find that of ``Myeongdong'' instead.
``It is sad that Korea plans huge projects to attract more visitors but
neglects small and detailed things that are really important in
providing foreigners with a convenient stay in Korea. Koreans rarely
ask foreigners what they want,'' an American who has taught English
here for five years said on condition of anonymity.
rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr
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