SEOUL, KOREA - "I would like to share Seoul's tradition and history with foreign tourists."
In an interview with the Mayor of Seoul, Park Won-soon, he stated that his goal was for Seoul to become a memorable city for foreign visitors.
"Attractive Tourist City, Seoul" announced by the Seoul Metropolitan Government on February 6 is a part of the projects designed to effectively promote the city to foreign travelers.
Last year, over 9 million foreign tourists visited Seoul, the capital of Korea. For the first time in 2012, Korea entered a new era with 10 million foreign travelers, some of whom selected Seoul as their first tourist destination in Korea. Due to PSY's "Gangnam Style", a global hit song, foreigners became more interested in Seoul. It is fair to say that Gangnam station is the most popular tourist spot.
With the global hit song "Gangnam Style", all eyes are on Seoul, Korea so that the "Attractive Tourist City, Seoul" project is expected to gain a synergy effect. By providing foreign tourists with the story of Seoul alongisde its time-honored tradition and history, the city serves as an attractive tourist spot.
Seoul, which was the capital of the ancient kingdom and the Joseon Dynasty for more than a thousand years, is a repository of stories. Besides "the Miracle on the Han River" with which the city became famous for its rapid modernization and industrialization, the Metropolitan Government plans to make Seoul more appealing and interesting to travelers by exploring the little-known story behind Seoul.
The project was designed to share the tradition and history of Seoul with foreign tourists based on stories, including the landscape of Seoul in terms of its history and today's main concerns, such as "”What was it like in Seoul when people lived there long ago" and "How did young people go out on a date in the ‘80's" The city designated five main tourists’ spots: the Han River, the Seoul City Wall, Dongdaemun area, neighboring Sejong Main Street (Sejong-ro), and the Hansung Baekje heritage site.
"The Seoul City Wall, which surrounds Hanyang (now Seoul) resonates with tumultuous history. As it is the former capital, it has become one of the most popular tourist sites in Seoul," Park stated. He explained that the City Wall, the oldest in East Asia, harbors various stories, presenting different aspects of nature, culture, and the people of Seoul whenever you tread around, and thus becoming a memorable place. The city is proceeding with a reconstruction project in order to designate the City Wall as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In addition, Seoul has promoted high-valued tourism industry, including MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions) industry, the Korean wave, and medical tourism to create jobs and contribute to economic growth in Seoul. In doing so it’s like killing two birds with one stone.
Seoul learns "Sharing Economics" from San Francisco
"Korea has led a sharing existence," Park said, "It was in Seoul that the sharing culture played a pivotal role in the community, particularly when big events happened. This required that all citizens work together." He added that, "The city would provide foreign tourists with Korea's unique affection and wisdom in life: namely that shared joy is double joy and shared sorrow is half-sorrow amidst a sharing culture."
In September 2012, the city announced "Sharing City, Seoul". The "Sharing" portion means that people share what they have with those who are in need, opening up unused resources for the benefit of everyone. The concept is familiar to us: sharing of food with neighbors and lending helping hands with the community when big events occur were the facets of the sharing culture. Likewise, it is common for Korean to share with affection. The word "affection" that is familiar to Korean is new to foreigners. To explain the affection to foreigners, sharing may be added.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government decided to adopt the concept of "sharing" to the tourism industry. Last year, Seoul was short of rooms for foreign tourists, subsequently forcing about a million people to visit elsewhere. Providing rooms was a daunting task that the city had to solve in order for Seoul to enter an era of hosting 20 million tourists. The city used "sharing" as an alternative in the form of the "homestay".
If a household provides tourists with an unoccupied room, the city could prepare accommodation facilities without the large burden associated with new infrastructure. This means that if 1,000 households participate in the homestay program, it is equivalent to establishing 20 hotels with 50 rooms each. In addition, a renting household could earn money to improve the household economy. For tourists, they could experience the life of Seoul, sharing the "affection".
IT infrastructure based on "Sharing"
The concept of "sharing" originated from San Francisco in the US. The global financial crisis led by the United States in 2009 drove cash-strapped people to prefer "sharing" to "possession". This conceptual notion of sharing was based on IT infrastructure in San Francisco. IT venture companies in San Francisco achieved success by adopting "sharing" to business.
For an example, we can look at AirBed & Breakfast (Airbnb) and Tool Library. Airbnb provides an online service for a homeowner renting unoccupied living space to guests. The company had over one million listings in 27,000 cities and 192 countries in only one year. Tool Library offered various tools and shared information and over 50 Tool Libraries have been installed to public libraries.
When it comes to IT infrastructure, Seoul is second to none. The city ranked first in an e-government assessment across the globe for five consecutive years according to Rutgers University. "With the most advanced IT technology, Seoul had the best base for this sharing project," the mayor said.
Meanwhile, the city planned to improve the existing tourist infrastructure from the perspective of tourists, including shopping circumstances, accommodation options, and tourist information systems. This is aimed to make a good impression on Seoul, in order to encourage tourists to visit again.
Park did not forget to convey a message to Seoul citizens. "Truth tends to convey through not words but the mind," he said. "If we correctly convey this meaning, tourists will remember Seoul in their memory forever." He added that, "If Koreans treat tourists with warm and generous affection, Seoul will place first amongst cities to visit again."
