Koreans tend to show greater hospitality to Western tourists than to their Asian neighbors, the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute said yesterday.

The institute's latest survey of 5,822 inbound tourists from 16 countries during the first half of 2009 revealed a disparity in satisfaction between visitors from the West and visitors from Asian countries.

The survey showed that among visitors from Western nations Germans and French tourists topped the satisfaction barometer with 79.7 percent and 77.9 percent, noting that "Koreans are friendly." Tourists from the United Kingdom (77.1 percent), North America (73 percent), and Australia (71.4 percent) followed, showing the majority of Western tourists that visited Korea felt Koreans were hospitable.

In contrast, tourists from Taiwan (32.8 percent), Thailand (48.9 percent), Japan (48.6 percent) and Hong Kong/Singapore (44.5 percent) universally gave Korea a low rating in hospitality, which suggests Koreans are selective when it comes to hospitality towards foreign visitors.

While Western tourists vaguely singled-out "friendliness" as the most memorable part of their trip, Asian tourists were more specific with focused interests. Japanese tourists chose Korean cuisine as the most attractive, with Thai tourists noting the "unique cultural assets of Korea," Taiwanese tourists pointed out the "clean streets," and those from Hong Kong singled out the "shopping environment" as memorable factors of their visit to Korea.

The survey also revealed that Korea is attractive for budget travelers and those interested in shopping.

Of all the survey participants, 54.9 percent said they visited Korea to shop and 43.2 percent said the currency exchange rate and low travel expenses were reasons they chose Korea as a travel destination.

According to the Korea Tourism and Culture Institute, "hospitality is an important factor in getting previous visitors to come back" and added, "we would like to see hospitality spread to all foreign visitors."

(kws@heraldm.com)

By Song Woong-ki

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/dat...00911160042.asp

White people spend a lot of money when they visit far-off destinations. They always buy a crap ton of souvenirs and eat at restaurants.

Asian restaurant/store owners see white tourists as walking money bags, so of course they'd be super friendly towards them. They want to try to get the most money out of them.

not necessarily lolz

could be that asian tourists are more critical in those surveys for ex.

this is nothing new, asian act more friendly toward white than other asian in almost every aspect of live, it is good thing that korean tourism notice this problem and try to fix it

Wrong, it suggests that they had different feelings as to their stay. Just because a German guy says he had a good time, and a Chinese girl says her time was 'ok', it does not mean they were necessarily treated different. SO MANY OTHER FACTORS could be at play - including, expectations.

That's same for Chinese, Japanese, Indian etc..

Of course, Caucasians are viewed as prestigious in most Asian culture (Chinese would be the only exception viewing Caucasians as good but not necessarily better –AKA jealousy). Light skin is ideologically intertwined in Asians’ (Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, etc) conception of beauty and thus view “White as better.” Moreover, psychologically speaking, beautiful people around the world are treated better, thus if an individual pertains to a group of people that is perceived as beautiful (AKA, Caucasians because of their light skin), they are naturally going to be treated better.

^^ then why did my 'black friends' get treated the same as my 'white friends' when they came to visit?

what do you mean chinese jealousy? white people mostly treated as royalty in china, some white people who complain about japan say chinese are friendlier to them, and it's not about skin color more about facial feature

Chinese want to be like the US but since their not right now they get jealous. Poor Chinese treat White people well, but more educated ones don’t. Japan is one of the most friendly countries for White people ( I am speaking from a White, American, male’s perspective). Girls go crazy for us, and we’re generally well respected. Maybe those Asians fearfully treated the Black guys the same not to show discrimination. However, my experience tells me that Black people around the world tend to mess everything up in whatever country they’re in (EX: spreading so much HIV/aids in Thailand), they look kind of scary (if you’ve never seen them before), they’re more animalistic, and generally lack class. Hell, us White people don’t even like them so I couldn’t imagine many Asians liking them either. As far as I know, Japanese and Thais are the only Asian women that would have sex with Black guys (except for stupid Americanized bi!tches).

lol that's just poor prejudice of yours, nothing worthy, I can say that american are jealous to chinese because they treated chinese poorly and american girls don't go crazy over chinese guy ROFL

Historically, Whites were seen as monster by Korean folks.
Historically Koreans saw Qing Chinese as barbaric people and Japanese as island midget.
I know this sound racist but it's the truth.

Whites were only seen favorably well after the Korean war.

Really? Which historical sources are you basing this on?

I didn't see how less hospitality Koreans were toward me. They are pretty friendly, in Seoul. I am Chinese, but I never tell them my background, just because I don't speak nor write Korean.

I went to Seoul last August. Amazing city.

Ben, they Mongols actually made it as far west as Budziszyn now "Bautzen" in Germany.

From what I read, White Russians were dubbed "white" because of their skin and hair color blonder than the rest and the abundance of birch trees. Either way, if one wants to be a purist which Im really not, then the proper translation of Belarus into English would be WHITE RUTHENIA. Rossija is Russia, Rus is Ruthenia.

WHITE are more attractive/rich + males have larger packages = treated better. Although I have to admit that S Korea is probably the only Asian country where men and women's level of attractiveness is on par. Everywhere else in Asia.... the men are Fugly and then women are overwhelmingly Hot.....lol

I don't agree on this matter regarding Vietnamese. Although light skin is often a popular preference, I think it's safe to say most of us equally value the darker skinned, more exotic Vietnamese as well.

"Of course, Caucasians are viewed as prestigious in most Asian culture (Chinese would be the only exception viewing Caucasians as good but not necessarily better –AKA jealousy). Light skin is ideologically intertwined in Asians’ (Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, etc) conception of beauty and thus view “White as better.” Moreover, psychologically speaking, beautiful people around the world are treated better, thus if an individual pertains to a group of people that is"

get over yourself.

What about non-whites. I was spat upon and hit and mistaken for a migrant worker.

Wow! What a racist you are - you certainly are giving people a wrong impression of American men.
Who are not all as flip as you are, or as as hateful about black people. If you said this in public in
U.S., you'd be in trouble. If you said it at work, you might lose your job - and I would hope that you would.
You're the kind of guy who gives America a bad name overseas.
Maggie

So, they would better treat poor Russian tourists who have no money to spend over Hong Kong/Singaporean tourists loaded with money to spend?

There could be external factors effecting the outcome, such as general dissatisfaction influencing their view of how they were treated.