English tourism site offers foreigners new resources

By Ines Min

Staff reporter

Reserving movie tickets, finding good eats and access to information on cultural events within the city has long been a struggle for English speakers residing and visiting Korea.

The city’s tourism organization launched a revamped version of its English-language Web site in late April, in an effort to bridge the gap between its goals and execution. But is the Seoul Tourism Organization’s new Web outlet, iTourSeoul, actually efficient and user-friendly?

Advance tickets to movies, theater productions, events and tours are all available through the site, which works with companies such as Interpark and Innostel to create a mostly smooth system. Helpful information about upcoming seasonal events is also displayed on the homepage, from the Lotus Lantern Festival to the Seoul Plaza Culture and Arts Festival.

The calendar layout is a bit awkward with non-intuitive organization and redundancy in design, but making a reservation is certainly more convenient and far easier than attempting to navigate Korean Web sites with little or no knowledge of the native tongue.

One possible drawback is that all payments must be made with a credit card, although both domestic and overseas accounts are accepted. A 500 won fee is added to all transactions.

Hard-to-find Korean restaurants organized by region and key words can be found with a click, though finding the right spelling for certain dishes can be tricky and not all great restaurants are included. Restaurants are also organized by categories that range from functional to amusing, such as “dishes with health benefits” and “very satisfying for the price.”