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• No. of Foreign Tourists in S. Korea Tops 10Mln
• Korea to Welcome 10-Millionth Tourist This Week
• Korea Welcomes its 10 Millionth Tourist
• Korean Businesses Feel Pinch as Japanese Tourists Dwindle
• Mass Influx of Chinese Tourists Boosts Retail Sales

Lee Charm, CEO of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), speaks during a recent interview with The Korea Times at his office in central Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Yun Suh-youngAccording to a Korean saying, in 10 years even rivers and mountains change. The nation’s tourism industry has changed greatly in just three years. Ever since Lee Charm, a German-born naturalized Korean, took the helm of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) in 2009, the nation has seen a sizable increase in the number of foreign tourists.The organization expects the number to surpass 10 million in November. The figure has climbed by 1 million every year for the past three years. With his three-year term nearing its end next month, what does Lee think of the progress he has made in the industry? “People’s perception about tourism has changed”, Lee said in an interview with The Korea Times.”Tourism is perceived as a more serious industry. The increase in the number of inbound tourists has played a big role. Now people say Korea is worth traveling to. Even Western countries are looking at us differently”.Korea attracted 7 million foreign tourists in 2009. Now the number is nearing 10 million.”More people are curious about Korea, and are being attracted here. As I always say, Korea has “qi” (energy), “heung” (exciting spirit), and “jeong” (affection). Korea is inspiring, refreshing and recharging. Even our slogan Touch Korea which means Korea touches people as well as are touched by people”, he said. Potential of tourismThe KTO chief is positive about the potential of Korea’s tourism industry. “The resources we have don’t fall behind those of Switzerland. I think it all depends on how we think. Twenty years ago, if we had not focused on developing the IT industry, this country would not have come this far. We are now an IT power, but becoming a tourism power needs the same amount of effort”, said Lee. “Korea is a very attractive country with its natural environment, traditional and modern culture, history, and city life. With Korea’s energy, we can develop our attractions to the highest level. The market is there and the Asian market will continue to grow. The question is who will dominate the market, how will we attract tourists”.Lee pointed to what Japan is doing to attract tourists following the nuclear disaster last year. “Ever since the earthquake and the meltdown of the nuclear power plant last year, Japan saw a 50 percent decrease in the number of tourists. So they’re very actively preparing to develop the industry. They’re moving toward creating a huge tourism infrastructure. They have a consensus”.Dealing with bureaucracyBut Korea seems to lack that consensus. Lee pointed to the difficulty of dealing with bureaucracy as one of the reasons. “One of the toughest problems I faced while in office was dealing with bureaucracy. It was the same for my predecessors. The governments change, but bureaucracy stays for life and is resistant to change. It takes a minimum of six months before anything gets started”, said Lee. “Since I took office, I wanted to create a venture boom in the tourism industry to help young people start up new businesses. We created a support system for start-ups for infrastructure from 2009. We only got to start this year after two and a half years”, he said. “Another thing was building infrastructure for accommodation. Since we don’t have enough hotel rooms, one way was to start a Korean style bed and breakfast. That also took two years”.He seemed disappointed at the fact that tourism received little attention in the bureaucratic sphere. “The President (Lee Myung-bak) himself is very open and aware of the potential of the tourism industry. But the organization is not really following yet. The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism is very weak and tourism the weakest. You can even see from the fact that tourism comes last in the name”, said the KTO head. “The national focus on tourism is still not there. The powerful ministries all get the lion’s share of the government budget, interest and focus. Already everything is distributed before we get anything”.Then, has he ever tried to fight against the bureaucracy?”I can’t change bureaucracy”, said Lee. “But in our own organization we made a lot of changes. We kind of reorganized the old structures here. It used to take a long time before a project started but now this process has sped up. Things get reported faster, start faster and are more creative. I encourage our staff to be creative and try something new”.Creating jobs, synergyThe tourism industry, according to Lee, is a blue ocean for young people and an excellent field to create new positions. “Right now, there’s no substantial creation of new jobs. So many young graduates don’t have a job. This is becoming a social problem not only in Korea but all over the world. We need to find solutions for that”, he said. “The tourism industry is where we can grow and where we can create a tremendous numbers of jobs. There will be more taxi drivers and market traders if the industry is booming. All of the different social strata are covered by tourism. It will create synergy”.The impact of one more tourist is huge in terms of economy, according to Lee. “The average spending of one person per overnight trip is 160,000 won. If 30 million people come for an overnight stay, that’s 5 trillion won. If it’s two weeks, that’s 70 trillion won”. But Korea still has a long way to go to attract more tourists and increase the number of domestic tourists. Koreans take too little vacation time, according to Lee. “It’s a long process. It won’t happen overnight. Korea still has this long tradition from the beginning of the Republic of Korea of focusing too much on work. In the Joseon and Goryeo periods, they were more relaxed”, he said. “Many people agree that we need two weeks off per year to really refresh and retune ourselves. Three to four-day vacations are not enough. Out of the four, two days are spent on the road. When do you relax? We need much more time. And that time is not just for refreshing the soul and spirit but also for families to have time to talk to each other”.Lee says vacations are a great way to build human relations in a society that lacks communication. “Our society is suffering from a lack of communication. Young children are not talking to older people. In traditional societies, the older generation taught the younger generation on what life is about and how you should live. But in order to teach, you need more time. The social system now isolates people more and more. Children don’t have time to talk to their parents and the parents don’t have time because they work, work and work”, said Lee.Need for longer vacations “At least once a year you need two weeks off to think about your life. Those countries that go on longer vacations have a higher productivity rate in output. European countries’ labor productivity is much higher. Korea is inefficient because people get tired more often. We need creativity, new ideas. But that’s only possible in a relaxed environment. Our society is not breathing in but just breathing out”.Fortunately, the trend is slowly changing. More organizations are joining in the move to offer longer holidays. “Since we launched the campaign for the two-week vacation period, many organizations have followed. SK and Samsung joined this movement. With Samsung Life Insurance we have a cooperation agreement where we provide them domestic tourism destinations and they organize trips for their employees”, said Lee. “The consensus is growing. I have even published a few books on how to spend time in Korea. But it will take some time to show through statistics that taking longer vacations result in better productivity”.More pressure and responsibility will be on the next KTO chief to lessen the work pressure of Korean office workers and continue with the project. But Lee, at least, has done his best.