A recent survey conducted by the Korea Tourism Organization shows that the number of calls made by disgruntled tourists in 2009 saw a 13.4 percent increase from the previous year.
Of the complaints, difficulties while shopping and disputing costs of taxi fares topped the list with 32.5 percent and 17.5 percent of the total 468 complaints filed.
. . .
Complaints from Westerners aren't as numerous.
According to the KTO's Byun Eun-hye, who works with the organization's complaint center, the majority of the reports regarding shopping mishaps were filed by Japanese and Chinese tourists.
"We've gotten numerous calls from Japanese tourists saying they received the wrong orders such as shoes that were not the size they had purchased or custom tailored clothes that didn't fit when they received them - or even bizarre instances where they purchased a cosmetic product only to find something entirely different once they opened the box," she said.
. . .
Some Koreans have been saying for years that foreign tourists should be expected to possess a minimum level of Korean. Others ask for better English education in the travel industry here, citing Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East as places where locals communicate with tourists primarily in English, rather than in their own local languages.
"It's difficult to say whether we are trying too hard to cater and to accommodate foreign tourists and not encouraging them more to try and speak Korean," said Kang Oki, the Korea Tourism Organization's executive director of public relations.
On that last point, The Marmot's Hole wrote:
I think phrasebooks are always a good thing to bring along when you travel — trying to communicate is part of the fun, after all, and it’s just common politeness to at least try to communicate with locals in their language — but it seems to me the KTO is in the business of making things easier for tourists (not the business of promoting the Korean language, which is the business of its parent organization, the Ministry of Culture), and that it’s in the best interests of tourism-related industries to have staff that can communicate with their customers.
I've mentioned taxis a few times on this site, mostly in regard to the foreigner-only cabs introduced last year to make travel easier for tourists, and I'll reiterate that I've found cab drivers in Korea to be friendly and patient, for the most part. With very few exceptions, their cabs are new and clean, and they don't expect passengers to tip them for doing their jobs.
I'll also bring up a little of what I mentioned on Alex's Adventures in Asia's post. My fiancee is Japanese, and walking around with her highlighted the different ways foreign customers are treated. Shopkeepers were very rarely actually rude to me, but they did have a tendency to shout English at my white face, or use baby English when it might be easier to simply speak Korean, or simpy hover beside me without saying anything. Koreans generally aren't as proficient in Japanese as they are in English, but in Busan and Insa-dong---which get a lot of Japanese tourists---it's not unusual to find clerks who do have a good command of the language. In Busan's Nampo-dong, for instance, shop employees will stand out on the street and pull Japanese tourists into the store, or shout the latest sales and specials to passersby. Adding another dimension to it is that my fiancee looks Korean: not because "all look same" to white people, but most Koreans were fooled, too. Before they learned Korean is not her native language, and even after, Koreans would often speak in Korean to her, and more often then not would exclude me from the conversation completely.
When you meet a white person in Korea, it's safe to assume they're an English teacher, and we know the stereotypes that go along with that. When you meet a Japanese person here, it's safe to assume they're a tourist and that they're looking to spend money. And, Japanese are the largest group of tourists to Korea, a big reason "complaints from Westerners [to the KTO] aren't as numerous". According to the stats provided by the Korea Tourism Organization for January, 209,184 Japanese entered the country, the most of any nationality. China was second with 91,252, all of North America had 53,839, and all of Europe had 46,509.
The KTO's English-language assistance line is 1330.
5 comments:
I think sales people can be exceptionally repulsive, but that can be true anywhere. I was buying neckties the other day in a department store and the woman would not get the F out of the way. I said I'm just looking many times in Korean, and actually ended up buying something but she kept on shoving these pink bedazzled monstrosities in my face.
Another time I was buying a suit in a department store. I just wanted to look at suits, but the damn guy had to tell me everything he knew about suits, and wanted me to try on like five or ten different suits and about how he sold a vast amount of suits in Seoul. I ended up buying a suit from a different store, and made a self imposed declaration to never shop at Cambridge members for fifty years because of that Jackass.
I find it a bit ironic hearing Japanese people complaining about taxi prices in Korea. Last time I was in Tokyo the base fare was about 8 bucks. I ended up walking about 300km on that trip.
And claiming they spent a third of their vacation budget on taxis... given a $1500 budget, that's 500 bucks. For 500 bucks you could probably circle Seoul 150 times. Either they had some really bad luck or they're the dumbest tourists to step foot on Korea.
Well, if they're moderately wealthy and if they don't frequently come to Korea, they might very well use taxis to travel everywhere (as opposed to buses or the subway). It's really for them I think, and not for your average English teacher, those foreign taxis were introduced. This isn't the first time we've read about Japanese people getting ripped off, so hopefully they'll wise up and realize what's happening. Or, they'll consult guidebooks to figure out how to use subways, buses, or airport buses to get around.
I guess I just look poor, or ugly, but salespeople generally left me alone. When I'd go shopping alone usually nobody would bother me until I asked for help. Annoying at times b/c I'd go to Kumho World---Gwangju's Techno Mart---and the sellers wouldn't give me a second look, but the second a Korean customer passed by they ran over to greet the 고객님. When I was with my fiancee they'd usually employ the triangle, something I don't miss about Korea, or indeed about Asia. I'd speak in Korean, the shopkeeper'd answer in Korean to my fiancee, my fiancee'd tell me what she said, in Korean, I'd say something else in Korean to the shopkeeper, s/he'd answer in Korean to my fiancee . . . and so on.
The Triangle. Ha. Funny concept.
Annoying at times b/c I'd go to Kumho World---Gwangju's Techno Mart---and the sellers wouldn't give me a second look, but the second a Korean customer passed by they ran over to greet the 고객님.
I was at technomart once. I was attempting to that day, that moment, but a Cowon D2. Had the cash in my pocket. First counter I went to, the guy gave me the D2. Literally in the middle of interacting with him, he served a Korean customer, and simply ignored me from then on. Ummm. Ummm. I just left the product on the counter, went to the next counter, and bought it there. Cash. The Korean he served bought zip. WTF. Although I gather many of those booths are owned by the same concern so maybe it wasn't ultimately a lost sale for the owner. But I'm sure it didn't help the salesguy's numbers.
Let me balance my comment with saying being a white devil frequently works to your advantage. Who of us doesn't become an instantly recognized "reg" at a Starbucks we patronize one day a week? And get free stuff.
I remember one dollar store I was buying a lot of stuff to outfit my apartment they gave me like 10 lbs of laundry detergent for free. It was about $20 worth. Whoa. "Free sample" was their explanation.
Don't understand the taxi complaint either.
Don't understand why Koreans feel tourists should know a little Korean.
Do most Koreans study Vietnamese or Thai before they go on tours there?
The few Koreans I talked whilst in living in both places sure hell didn't have a "minimum level" of anything but English.
How arrogant is that anyway? Tourists having a "minimum level of Korean" just to visit, get over yourselves. Idiots.
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