Kim Ji-soo joined The Korea Times in 2006, and worked on such desks as culture and politics and is currently a member of the Editorial Board. Previous workplaces include The Korea Herald and the Korea JoongAng Daily.
5.4 Club survey finds Korean food most hot
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Choi Jung-wha, seventh from left, president of Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI), and Didier Beltoise, ninth from left, CEO of Cs, pose with dignatories at the first anniversary of the founding of the 5.4 Club holding up calligraphy by Kang Byung-in at a ceremony held at Grand Hyatt Seoul, Friday. / Courtesy of CICI
By Kim Ji-soo
By Kim Ji-soo
Foreign visitors to Korea have identified its cuisine as the most exciting experience of their stay, with more of them complaining about environmental factors such as pollution and noise, revealed a recent survey by the 5.4 Club.
The results were announced at the first anniversary of the founding of the 5.4 Club held at Grand Hyatt Seoul, Friday.
The 5.4 Club, a co-creation of the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) and Cs, is aimed at helping to share the experience of Korean culture through the five senses by way of things to eat and drink, to see, to enjoy and relax and to talk about.
It was founded by Choi Jung-wha, president of CICI and Didier Beltoise, CEO of the consulting firm Cs.
At Friday’s ceremony, calligrapher KangByung-in started the ceremony by writing the words “spring” and “5.4 Club” in Korean calligraphy. Beltoise thanked the participants who included such dignitaries as Singaporean Ambassador Peter Tan, Austrian Ambassador Elisabeth Bertagnoli, Slovakian Ambassador Dusan Bella and his wife and French Ambassador Jerome Pasquier.
The results of the survey was announced at the ceremony. A total of 200 foreign visitors to Korea and 241 Koreans were polled via email.
Of the respondents, 41.6 percent of the foreigners surveyed cited Korean food as the most attractive experience.
Over 30 percent of them then said that “things to see” were most satisfactory, followed by “things to enjoy” cited by 12 percent.
Korean respondents also responded in that order, a total of 41.1 percent said that they thought the cuisine was the most appealing to foreign visitors. It was followed by sightseeing (32 percent) and recreational activities (11.2 percent).
But 80 percent of the foreign respondents said that environmental issues presented an inconvenient experience, followed by 52.5 percent who said communication.
On the other hand, a significant portion (44.4 percent) of the Korean respondents said they thought communication may be the top hindering factor for foreigners visiting Korea.
Most foreigners or 67.5 percent found food also most convenient to experience in Korea with shopping cited by 54.5 percent of the respondents, while 38 percent said mass transit.
The majority of the foreigners (or 60.5 percent) said that they found information about Korea through friends or acquaintances. Only 17 percent said that they visited the home page of the Korea Tourism Organization.
Asked what they would foremost do on a second visit to Korea, 42.4 percent said that they would experience traditional Korean culture.