Along with the Korea Tourism Organization, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will examine tourism demand at major attractions in Seoul to ensure superior service to Japanese nationals visiting during their country's extended Golden Week holidays. Shown is Gwangjang Market in Seoul's Jongno-gu District, one of the capital's top hotspots. (Yonhap News) 

By Koh Hyunjeong

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will tackle tourist inconveniences at major Seoul destinations from the perspectives of foreign visitors.

Along with the Korea Tourism Organization, the ministry on April 28 said both organizations from April 29 will inspect overall tourist demand at key tourism attractions in the capital to provide satisfactory services to Japanese visitors during their nation's extended Golden Week holidays from April 27 to May 6.

To this end, domestic college students from the so-called Tourism Service Win-win Group and Korea-based Japanese social media reporters will jointly check inconveniences at popular tourist spots ranging from guidance systems and convenience facilities to public transportation. They will focus on the key tourist-heavy neighborhoods of Myeong-dong and Seongsu-dong as well as Gwangjang Market.

In February, the ministry and KTO recruited 100 college students to launch the tourism group to review and improve the quality of tourism services in the country to raise visitor satisfaction.

Their Japanese counterparts are from Kantabi Supporters, a Korea-based group that offers quality tourism content on Korea for Japanese tourists in real time.

One such supporter, Reina Tanaka, said, "I find it meaningful to visit and see leading tourist attractions in Korea from a foreign perspective."

Park Jong Taek, director-general of the ministry's Tourism Policy Bureau, said, "We will keep working with local governments and the tourism industry to ensure that foreign tourists in Korea can experience more satisfying and reliable tourism services." 

Japan's Golden Week this year is from April 27 to May 6. Japanese tourists recently chose Korea as their top destination to visit during this period.

hjkoh@korea.kr