Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
Korea to provide tour guide training for marriage immigrants and their children
An alleyway in central Seoul's Bukchon Hanok Village bustles with domestic and international visitors in this November 2024 photo. Korea Times photo by Park Si-mon
By Lee Hae-rin
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, along with the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), plans to train foreign nationals married to Korean citizens, as well as their children, to become multilingual tour guides in Korea’s cosmopolitan areas, the KTO announced Tuesday.
The 152-hour program, from May 19 to November 14, includes on-the-job training, written tests and interview preparation to help participants become licensed tour guides.
Marriage immigrants from countries where nine languages are spoken — Thai, Vietnamese, Malay, Indonesian, Arabic, Italian, Russian, Spanish, French and German — along with their children can apply for the KTO’s free training program.
According to data from the Ministry of Justice, the number of marriage immigrants in Korea reached 172,899 as of 2023, showing a gradual rise from 149,764 in 2013 and 157,418 in 2018.
Similarly, the number of children from multicultural backgrounds has steadily grown since 2012, reaching 305,246 in 2023 — more than double the 2015 figure.
The tour guide license is the only government-certified license under the tourism ministry's jurisdiction that is issued by the KTO. It is available to anyone, regardless of nationality, age, experience or academic background, after they pass a foreign language test, a written test and an interview conducted by the Human Resources Development Service.
License holders typically work as freelance tour guides for travel agencies or in the hotel and airline industries.
The initiative comes as a response to the country’s increasing demand for multilingual tour guides, driven by a rise in inbound visitors from around the world.
A notable 91.9 percent of the 13,841 licensed tour guides at the Korea Tourist Guide Association, a non-profit corporation authorized by the culture ministry, speak English, Japanese and Chinese.
Meanwhile, the country has seen a surge in travelers from Southeast Asia and Europe, driven by the growing global popularity of Korean culture in recent years.
According to KTO statistics, over 1.47 million travelers from Southeast Asian nations speaking languages such as Vietnamese, Malay, Indonesian and Thai visited Korea in 2024, marking a 12.4 percent increase from the previous year.
Notably, over 511,000 Vietnamese travelers visited Korea last year, reflecting a 21.7 percent increase from 2023, making Vietnam the second-largest source of Southeast Asian visitors after the English-speaking Philippines.
A total of 60 applicants will be selected for this round of training support, and the results will be announced on May 15.
The KTO plans to expand the training initiative nationwide, aiming to cultivate multilingual tour guides, create job opportunities for people from multicultural backgrounds, and enhance the experience of foreign tourists in Korea.
Details on the application are available on the KTO’s online education website.