The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) on Sunday released a report saying foreign tourists visiting Korea are least satisfied with shopping, taxi rides and accommodations, Asian media reported.
The report said the Tourist Complaints Centre received 902 complaints last year, up significantly from 288 in 2022. The number of complaints fell between 2020 and 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic, but rose last year as the tourism industry recovered. Of these, 808 (89.6 percent) complaints were from foreign visitors.
The largest number of complaints (215) were related to shopping, including overpricing, tax refunds and return and exchange policies.
Taxi services were the second biggest inconvenience for foreign tourists, accounting for 18.8 percent of complaints (170). Problems included overcharging and refusal to switch on meters, drivers being impolite to customers and deliberately taking longer routes because of higher fares.
Accommodations ranked third. Notably, of the 142 reported cases, 31.7 percent were related to poor conditions and hygiene.
The KTO and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism vowed to cooperate with local governments to improve the convenience of tourists and promote regional tourism. It said in a statement: “We will regularly inspect major tourist attractions to keep an eye on exorbitant pricing at cultural and tourism festivals. We will take tougher measures on illegal practices of taxi drivers and improve services for foreign tourists.”
The number of tourists to South Korea reached 11.02 million last year, up 245 percent from a year earlier. After plummeting from 17.5 million in 2019 to 2.52 million in 2020 and 970,000 in 2021, the number recovered to 3.2 million in 2022 and surpassed 11 million last year.
