Korea Tour Cards flying off shelves
Misaki Futamata, right, poses with her friend holding the Korea Tour Card. / Courtesy of Visit Korea Committee
By Jung Min-ho
The Korea Tour Card, which offers many benefits exclusively for foreign tourists, has been flying off shelves since its release late January.
According to the Visit Korea Committee, Tuesday, more than 10,000 tourists have purchased the card, which offers discounts and special gifts at major tourist attractions and shopping malls.
Tourists can use the card for public transportation, including taxis, and almost all convenience stores across Korea. Benefits include a fifty percent discount for admission to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) and a 10 percent discount for all products at Shilla I’Park Duty Free. These are just two of a plethora of benefits 25 partner companies offer.
On her latest visit to Korea, Misaki Futamata, a 23-year-old Japanese tourist, took advantage of the card and was fully satisfied with it.
She purchased the card at a convenience store as soon as she arrived at Incheon International Airport and used it to take the subway to her hotel in the heart of Seoul.
“At Lotte World Mall, I bought a bunch of sheet masks at my favorite beauty product store, knowing that they were only half price thanks to the card,” she said. “Then I received a 30 percent discount for my admission ticket to Lotte World.”
The next day, she enjoyed the visual arts displayed at the MMCA for half price and received a 10 percent discount for cosmetics and snacks she bought at Doota Duty Free.
“The more I used the public transportation, the more I felt that the card is very convenient,” she said. “I was also surprised by the number of benefits, including the free gifts I received.”
As a big fan of Korean TV shows and music, Futamata visited SMTOWN@coexartium, a five-story building at COEX in southern Seoul, on her last day in Korea.
At a discount, she watched a lifelike performance of her favorite singers in a hologram theater and had lunch at a cafe with traces of the stars.
At the airport, she was refunded the card balance before getting on her plane bound for home.
“The number of benefits visitors can receive depends on what places they choose to go, and luckily I got plenty this time,” she said. “I would buy the card even only for use as a transportation card. I would recommend it to my friends who visit Korea frequently.”
According to the committee, convenience stores within Incheon International Airport and the Airport Railroad Travel Center account for 85 percent of all card sales.
The committee will make it easier for tourists to buy the cards. From April, they can buy them from machines set up at subway lines 1 to 4. In the near future, visitors will be able to do so online and through travel agencies.
The committee said it also plans to add more benefits and functions to the cards.
“It has been a great success so far,” Han Kyung-ah, secretary general of the committee, said. “On another positive note, an increasing number of tourists use the cards outside Seoul. We will add more benefits for lesser-known attractions so that they can travel to more parts of the country with more benefits and convenience.”