By Park Hyun-Doo
President of Global Management Institute (GMI)
What a surprise it was to hear about the postponing of a Chinese plane loaded with golf clubs by changing its originally scheduled flight from Daegu to the southern Chinese island of 'Hainan' until next morning!!
This phenomenon is indeed unique in the world and reflects the demand of Korean golf tourists and China's chronic limitation in relying on its own domestic tourists.
Many Koreans are capable of spending their money abroad for leisure, suggesting the need for the Lee Myung-bak administration to encourage local tourism.
The incoming administration can alleviate the excessive demand of Koreans to travel abroad without worrying about the risks and feasibility of developing domestic tourism if the MB government so chooses.
First of all, let us ask why so many people in Korea want to travel abroad instead of enjoying themselves in Korea during the holiday seasons. Many winter golfers do because there aren't any mega golf courses in Korea.
However, Korea has much natural beauty that is admired by most of its foreign visitors (who can bear cold weather) off its southern coast.
It is extremely expensive to have the same level of entertainment domestically in comparison to its neighboring Asian countries.
For instance, the cost of planning a group package golf tour in Korea is almost unthinkable compared to the cost in Southeast Asian countries. In other words, there is nowhere in Korea that can accommodate domestic demand for a group golf tour at the same level of expense required in those countries.
Nevertheless, it is outrageous that the economic consequences of this exodus work so negatively in the service trade by making an annual deficit of approximately $8.5 billion. This is a total waste of our precious foreign exchange earnings every year.
This kind of overspending caused by overseas leisure will lead to a permanent deficit in international payments.
In this regard, President-elect Lee indicated boldly that he will do everything possible to offset the annual imbalance of outgoing Korean tourist by receiving 10 million tourists from foreign countries.
The most feasible and appropriate counter measures against exorbitant consumption abroad, are, first of all, a drastic reduction of tax rate for tourism industries in Korea with a particular regard to the green fee charged to golfers.
The fundamental cause of outgoing golf tours is basically derived from a high consumption tax rate on the green fee charged to domestic golfers.
There is also a limited number of available golf courses in Korea because the government has been imposing numerous regulations and restrictions on building new courses.
Without removing such hurdles, it is natural for outgoing Korean golf tours to continue, wasting precious foreign exchange earnings.
I suggest developing national tourist golf spots in Korea, a ``Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail-type Course'' for the general public, similar to those affiliated with the major tourist centers in Alabama.
Considering Korea is not and oil-producing country, it needs to mobilize different resources for developing its tourism industry to generate new income and employment. More specifically, it should provide various incentives for the building of domestic golf tourism facilities, such as a series of mega golf resort towns with spa facilities, similar to Palm Springs in California and West Palm Beach in Florida.
These mega golf resort towns can be established throughout the southeastern coast of the Korean peninsula, connecting them to the national canal that the incoming administration intends to build. For instance, building a new golf tourist town in Saemanguem would be ideal in becoming synonymous with a Far Eastern version of Dubai. It would be easily accessible to Japanese as well as Chinese tourists with competitive tourist facilities providing a spectrum of tourist services.
Nobody can doubt the economic impact of this kind mega project: the creation of new jobs and income for future generations. We should know that the globalization of Korea does not take place only by going out to the world but by creating a new world within Korea.