By This is all fine dandy, but I don’t see anything here on what sites within Korea the government is going to promote to get this tourist increase and how they plan on doing this?:
The government has announced a plan to create some 40-thousand jobs by boosting the domestic leisure and tourism industries.
The announcement was made during a national employment strategy meeting chaired by President Lee Myung-bak and attended by the heads of six related ministries.
Under the plan, the government will seek to increase the number of foreign tourists to 12 million by 2014 from the current seven-point-eight million, and also hope to up the average vacation time for domestic tourists from nine to 14 days.
To that end, the government will designate and promote four promising and profitable tourist attractions. By 2014, it will also transform about three-thousand hotel and motel rooms in the capital region into budget accommodations. A streamlined reservation system for the rooms will also be devised.
In addition, the government will ease regulations on visa issuance for tourists from China and Southeast Asian nations. [KBS Global]
10:39 am on July 15th, 2010 1
"the government will ease regulations on visa issuance for tourists from China and Southeast Asian nations"
There's your answer right there. Korea wants more Asian tourists, which have increased by double in the last 5 years. White guys stay home, we're sick of your snotty put downs of Korea.
11:02 am on July 15th, 2010 2
That's right, it's best that white people stay away from Korea. It's a mostly unpleasant no-win situation from one of the rudest cultures in the world.
12:02 pm on July 15th, 2010 3
#1,
You flunked grade 10 geography, didn't you?
12:04 pm on July 15th, 2010 4
…Speaking of which, what's with the picture? They sure don't look Chinese or Japanese.
1:01 pm on July 15th, 2010 5
They sure don't. They look like angry, snotty know it all Westerners who think they are above everyone, to me.
2:33 pm on July 15th, 2010 6
One thing's for sure those white people in the picture are getting their money stolen in one way or another.
3:25 pm on July 15th, 2010 7
Try cleaning up the stinking environment, learn how to drive, and learn how to defend your own country then you wouldn't need listen to the snotty put downs.
3:36 pm on July 15th, 2010 8
Versus angry, snotty know it all Koreans who think they are above everyone?
Tom, you're too easy. Like your sister.
4:38 pm on July 15th, 2010 9
Partake,
"One thing’s for sure those white people in the picture are getting their money stolen in one way or another."
Hmmm… there are a lot of places in the world where tourists get ripped off… and Korea is not really one of them. Apart from a few taxi drivers who target GIs (including at the airport), Korea is one of the safest places to not get ripped off.
In fact, I think I have had more meals bought for me, more strangers giving me a ride when I asked for directions, more free drinks and more general consideration and kindness as a tourist in Korea than anywhere else.
scoobydoo,
"Try cleaning up the stinking environment, learn how to drive, and learn how to defend your own country then you wouldn’t need listen to the snotty put downs."
The environment is getting better, driving is getting better and, regardless of a few small-picture nationalistic whiners, its cheaper to outsource defense to America's professional military.
5:01 pm on July 15th, 2010 10
#9 Chickenhead, I agree. AWAY from the military bases Koreans are generally both cordial and honest. My rants on Koreans are usually limited to business dealings (which tourists and most others won't experience) and of course the spoiled Koreans (the fault of both bad GI's and bad Koreans) near US installations.
A good example is the east coast. The Koreans are nice and the environment is nice. Driving isn't bad either. It's almost like being in Japan.
7:17 pm on July 15th, 2010 11
Chickenhead's
Agree. Korea is one of the safest places in the world to live. And every time I arrive sans-wife at the Incheon airport, one of those pirate taxi drivers asks if I want a taxi. To a first time tourist to Korea, getting ripped off by a pirate taxi driver at the airport leaves a very bad taste in their mouth. If the airport police were serious about stopping it, they would.
9:23 pm on July 15th, 2010 12
#5,
So, which one are you in that picture?
4:12 am on July 18th, 2010 13
Just wait until you get out of Seoul. Across the street from Busan Station? Texas Street, or as it's now called 'Choryang street for Foreigners' – it's a Russian hooker street. You're unlikely to get in over your head (unless, of course, you're looking to do that), but that's just one place. Almost every place I've traveled in Korea has featured SOME sort of attempt to rip the foreigner off, treat them by different rules, or simply have an inability to communicate with non-Koreans – EVEN the well-meaning foreigners that speaks some Korean. This will not turn into a rant, but it could easily. During my recent four-day vacation alone, I had two different incidents with the locals – one involving trying to gouge the tourists, and one involving treating the foreigners differently.
"A streamlined reservation system for the rooms will also be devised."
Right. Like benikea? Or whatever that other website was before it? Fact of the matter is that you don't have to reserve a hotel.
I want to see Korea succeed in the tourism sector, but vague 'plans' and 'goals' isn't going to do the trick.
8:47 am on July 18th, 2010 14
for the most part, the people posting about this article sound like stereotypes of the ugly american — xenophobic, undereducated rednecks.
9:37 am on July 18th, 2010 15
Hi there, V! How long have you been in Korea?