This is not impossible. China is close, has a burgeoning middle class that might be interested in seeing another country not too far away, and quite simply has those massive numbers of people. You get even 0.01% of Chinese to visit, you’ve made a lot of money.

Promoting the hiking scene is a good idea for this: a lot of Chinese seem to have a similiar love of hiking small-medium mountains that Koreans do, and require less or no adustment to litter and rudeness, since both are epidemic in China.

However, away from the cities in the remoter areas as well as the national parks they are kept pretty clean. At Soraksan it has huge tourism traffic on the trails around the main park entrance and yet the authorities there keep the place clean from tourists leaving their garbage lying around. I actually saw an ajushi chew out some people picnicking along the trail at Soraksan and made them pick up all their trash. I just wish this attitude would extend across the country.

The “trail” was covered in litter like cigarette butts, empty soju bottles and various pieces of trash. Everywhere that there was a clearing, there would be groups of drunk Korean men swilling down bottle of soju with a smoke in their hand. I tried to peacefully walk up the mountain, but every few minutes, and at some points, every couple of seconds, some old woman or man came barreling into me shoving their way through the crowds.

As I got closer to the top, there would be more old men yelling YEEHAW everywhere. I guess these simpletons, thought they were in the alps, and not some miserable hill.

American, and Japanese hiking trails are so much nicer, they have rules that are followed, so everyone can have a good time. Canada has some of the most beautiful hiking in the world. I will never go hiking in Korea again, and I always try inform people as to the reality of Korean hiking.

If you hike up the Sorak Mountain from Osaek Hot Springs it is much less crowded and often you have the whole trail to yourself. If you hike up from Baekdamsa Temple on the parks north the trail is deserted. There are other trails on the mountain as well that are not crowded.

It is like this at other mountains in Korea as well. I hiked up Woraksan which I think is one of the prettiest mountains in Korea and probably only saw 20 people on the mountain that day.

I have been on popular trails in America, Australia, and New Zealand with more people on them than some of the trails in Korea. Another way to reduce the amount of people on given trail is with bookings and making people walk in one direction only which is what they do with popular trails in New Zealand. There are ways to avoid and control crowds and other nations have done it before, but I really think Korea can market itself as a hiking destination.

wrenchbender,

Korea will never be a place for beach lovers but the country does have a lot of historical sites and beautiful mountains. In Australia and New Zealand they really market their hiking opportunities and many people travel to those countries simply to hike the popular trails.

Korea could do the same thing by designating something like the “Ocean to the DMZ Trail” or the “10 Great Walks of Korea” or something like that. Within these hikes the popular historical areas could be included. Korea’s historical sites is something unique about the country that it has over a place like New Zealand.

Likewise Korea would have to improve their trail system along with the infrastructure to get tourists to and from popular hiking areas. This all sounds cheesy but if it is marketed to the proper audience by running features in hiking and outdoors magazines for example it will draw additional tourists.

Korean War tourism is another area extremely lacking. You wouldn’t believe how many emails I get from people asking me how to get to and from different Korean War battle sites.

I have lots of ideas which I think will draw more tourists than digging a ditch through the middle of the country, but hey I could be wrong maybe people are interested in sailing through a big ditch.

For vacation I’d rather be in Thailand sitting on a beach where it’s warm year round, drink a Sing-Ha beer and smoke a big fat, ahem, doobie where my wife can speak the lingo franca. And then tear it up on my big loud bike… (after the ganja wears off of course). Or blasting around on the South Island in New Zealand or taking a slow cruise up the Gold Coast in Austrailia where I have a few friends that live in Brisbane.

“I’ve heard South Korea sustained a deficit of $10 billion in tourism trade last year. Increasing numbers of Koreans go abroad, but the number of visiting foreigners seems to stagnate,” Lee said during his meeting with tourism industry representatives in Seoul.

Come on, Mr. President, pull your head out of the sand and think about why more and more Koreans have gone abroad since 2004, and you’ll be at the proximate cause.

If you actually wondered what so called Korean-Americans think of their fellow Americans. Just look at the hatred Tom the gyopo from America spews forth. Tom is not alone. American Gyopos hate the USA. They hate America, they hate white people, god knows they hate blacks and Hispanic Americans. Zanichi are the same. So its not the fault of the beautiful nation they willingly emigrate too.

Thanks GOD, all Asians in the USA are not like gyopo Tom. I just wish gyops would wear a T-shirt that said, “Korean” so other good Asians are not called Korean.

(Peter-LOL, I think if you eat too much Kimuchi, you will have a lot of Bong ki moons-LOL)