Jjimjilbang top attraction for foreign tourists
U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert, left, talks with students at a “jjimjilbang,” a Korean-style spa, at the Shinsegae Centum City in Busan, Wednesday. A survey showed that foreign tourists chose jjimjilbang as the most memorable experience in Korea. / Yonhap
Foreign tourists find “jjimjilbang,” Korean saunas, the most interesting experience here, a survey showed, Wednesday.
Cosmojin, a domestic travel agency specializing in tours for foreigners, conducted the survey with 926 people and it showed that 53.1 percent of them said that visiting jjimjilbang was their favorite experience while in Korea.
“At jjimjilbang, the tourists were particularly intrigued by the Korean practice of scrubbing dirt and dead skin cells off their bodies,” a Cosmojin official said.
“We recently took a Hollywood actress who visited Korea to a jjimjilbang. She got a scrub and found it so fascinating, that she took some of the dead skin cells back with her,” she said.
While foreigners might not be familiar with the idea of stripping down and bathing together with strangers, it didn’t seem to bother them too much, she added.
“Some are a little embarrassed at first, but they have nude beaches in many of their home countries, so they seem to be okay with it,” the official said.
The tourists also enjoy sitting around talking about Korean culture, and trying Korean snacks sold at the saunas, she added.
Hollywood stars such as Miranda Kerr and Kristen Stewart are known to have visited jjimjilbang when they visited Korea.
The second most memorable experience was to try on the traditional Korean costume, hanbok (22 percent), followed by getting stamps carved with their names in Korean (14 percent), trying the martial art taekwondo (8 percent) and taking part in traditional games (3 percent).
Stamps are usually available in Insa-dong in Seoul, where stamp-makers carve out foreigners’ names in Korean.
“Unlike in the past, foreign tourists are seeking attractions where they are able to experience Korean culture up front,” Cosmojin CEO Chung Myung-jin said.
“In the past, traditional tourist sites such as Gyeongbok Palace were popular, but now tourists show greater satisfaction in taking part in activities seen on Korean dramas and entertainment shows.”