[Courtesy of the presidential Blue House.]
President Park Geun-hye on Friday called for a bold turnaround in the attitude of South Korea's tourism industry, blaming an unkind attitude and overcharging for chasing away foreign tourists especially from China.
Park told a meeting of tourism-related officials that the tourism industry should seek "radical reform" to let foreign tourists revisit South Korea, according to the presidential Blue House.
"We must try to create an environment in our tourism industry so that (tourists) can come back without complaints," she was quoted as saying.
She blamed a combination of unkindness, overcharging and cut-price package tours for causing complaints especially among Chinese tourists during their stay in South Korea. "What's left most in the mind of tourists is hospitality shown by the host nation."
"Problems such as cut-price package tours targeting Chinese tourists and overcharged tax fares are the main cause for complaints and hurt the reputation of our tourism industry," Park said.
South Korea has vowed to expel unqualified and substandard tour operators for Chinese visitors. Regulations would be tightened, along with a crackdown on illegal business activities by tour operators, shops and restaurants. Some tour agencies were accused of luring Chinese tourists with cheap and low-quality packages.
Data compiled by the state-run Korea Tourism Organization showed Chinese travelers accounted for 45 percent of 13.23 million foreigners who visited South Korea last year. Complaints, however, are growing among them about a language barrier, high prices, and the lack of tourism-related infrastructures such as food and accommodations, and the bureaucratic red tape.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
