South Korea is expected to attract as many as 11 million foreign tourists this year. It will be the first time for the number to exceed the 10-million mark after 9.7 million travelled to the country last year, up 11.3 percent from 2010. It is encouraging that the nation has enjoyed a double-digit growth in inbound tourists for the last three years.
This achievement was unquestionably the results of close cooperation for tourism promotion between the government and the private sector. This began with the “2010-2012 Visit Korea” campaign. Now, it’s time to do more to make the campaign continue to succeed as it is in its final year.
Of course, an increasing number of tourists alone are not the end of the story. That is, at this point, the nation needs to shift the focus from quantitative growth to a qualitative one in order to fully assert itself as a consistently attractive tourist destination.
First, Korea should build more tourism infrastructure, such as resorts, hotels, leisure facilities, restaurants, and shopping malls specially designed for foreigners. It is also required to restore cultural relics and heritage so that visitors can easily feel and experience things unique to Korea.
It’s urgent to develop diverse tour packages and programs tailored to travelers from different parts of the world. It is important to maximize the effects of hallyu (Korean Wave), an overseas boom of Korean pop culture including K-pop music, soap operas and movies.
Beefing up medical tourism is also good way of drawing more tourists to the country. According to the Bank of Korea, foreign tourists spent $115 million on medical services here last year. The sum exceeded Korean tourists’ expenditure on similar services overseas for the first time, posting a surplus of $6.5 million. Korea has great potential for this field as local clinics and hospitals have advanced know-how and equipment.
No doubt tourism can serve as the nation’s new growth engine. Make concerted efforts to let tourism create more added values and more jobs. But, we still have many problems to overcome. Travel agencies should no longer rip off foreigners by selling cheap packages. This shameful practice will only taint the image of Korea. A long-term strategy is necessary to place the nation on the list of one of the world’s best attractions.