South Korea as a Benchmark for Tourism Development (Part 1)

Let’s Take a Look

at South Korea’s as a tourism develop model

Tourism planning and development has proven to be an effective tool in helping the economic upliftment of many countries. South Korea has been making strides in coming up with commendable urban tourism programs that has been helping the country position itself as a major tourist destination in Asia. We now look at the country’s development of its travel industry and see how we can use it as a model for urban planning with focus on tourism development in many other areas.

If you’re looking for Part 2, you can see it HERE.

What is Tourism Development Benchmarking?

Before we dig in deeper. Let’s deal first with the meaning of benchmarking. It is simply looking at another site or object that can be regarded as a model or emulated for the development of another site or object. In tourism, it would be about picking out a destination, identifying its features and how it developed, then modeling another destination based on the features of the benchmarked destination.

What makes benchmarking an effective tool in tourism planning and development?

The number one benefit of benchmarking is it saves so much time and resources in figuring out how a new or emerging destination should be planned, developed and managed. Without any benchmark, planning a tourism site would lean towards trial and error or just one level above the tarot card reading. A lot of time would be wasted figuring out how a lake, a river, a mountain or even an informal settlement can be developed or repurposed into a viable tourist destination. You can definitely throw in practical things to make those development introduction more sustainable and even green.

Benchmarking also minimizes the element of the unknown and makes a new destination more prepared to potential negative impacts or repercussions because the benchmarks already identified the potential issues and possible solutions.

But keep these in mind when you apply benchmarking in tourism planning and development

Copy-pasting or completely imitating a benchmark should be abhorred. One should treat it like learning how to knit to come up with a unique product and not knitting something that has been done. Take the lesson, not make the imitation.

The idea must apply to local setting. The environmental, social, cultural and economic condition of a benchmark would most likely be different from other destinations. The resources are different and even the markets would need some tweaking to make the development more feasible.

With these out of the way, we can now look at South Korea as a good benchmark for tourism planning, development and management.

The country is strongly tied to culture and history

It is very evident that South Korea holds strongly to its culture and history with so many structures kept in their original forms and functions.

And yet, it unabashedly embraces the present and the future

Its competes with many highly developed urban centers in terms of development and growing number of skyscrapers.

It avoids white elephants

Unlike many countries that hosted major events with the facilities and infrastructure becoming useless white elephants, South Korea has successfully made those huge complexes into major social amenities (e.g. parks) and tourist attractions.

South Korea has maintained so many of its historical sites such as palace complexes even in the middle of the capital city of Seoul where their cultural and historical values over commercial repurposing is never an issue. Because businesses come and go and eventually forgotten in decades. But culture and history will remain as integral parts of the people and the country for thousands of years.

Deoksugung Palace

near Seoul City Hall

Deoksugung Palace

Structures built by foreign governments are still maintained and now become part of cultural and historical depository

Gyeongbukgung Palace

Palace grounds occupy large areas and yet they remain untouched by any form of “modern” development

Insadong Street

Making roads exclusive for walking significantly increased their economic values. The slower pace of walking lengthens the eye contact of people towards the commercial items thereby making the place most ideal for shopping and dining.

Large, open spaces define the value of new cities

Inspite of the huge land value per square meter of a planned district, an open space (man-made lake in Incheon Central Park) became the focal point of maintaining or assuring the quality of living, visiting experience and doing business in an urban area.

You don’t need huge territories

I’ve actually been saying this to some local developers and government units. That same man-made lake is less than 1.5 kilometers. Yet, it has successfully implemented cruising activity in the area. Yes, you don’t need to develop a cruising program to cover the entire length of a river such as Pasig River. Any of the cities straddling the river can successfully develop a river cruising program without leaving their territories.

Insane amount of Museums

This should be emulated by many countries. Korea has an impressive record keeping culture. Museums are established and appropriately developed to help their people be firmly rooted to their past and prepared to protect their future.

Natural features are protected

Not only protected, but also also developed for multi-purpose functions. People utilize river banks for biking, exercising, mobility and improving the over-all ambience of the area for the people. These sites then become options for tourist attractions. Developments such as this can also serve as a demarcation or purposed fence to prevent the intrusion of unwanted structures.

Abandoned Infrastructure are repurposed

The Seonyudo island in the middle of Han River which used to serve as a water filtration plant has been repurposed into a park and tourist attraction.

People are the priority

Pedestrian bridges are made to ensure the safe and convenient access of the visitors (Seonyudo Island). By ensuring convenient and safe pedestrian access, people will not insist on developing road or parking facilities within the core area.

Parks and open spaces everywhere

The total value of an urban area is measured not only in the cost of doing business, but largely on the well-being of the people. They are not mere large dish gardens but also serve as mobility features where people can safely walk, rest, and spend quality time in the fast-paced urban environment (Dream Park in Seoul).

Safety is a way of living

From an outsider’s perspective, the level of safety, even for women walking in the park or streets at night is almost beyond comprehension, especially for somebody who grew up feeling unsafe in every dark alley. For folks who say that poverty makes people commit crime, it is hardly a correlation in this country. Other governments should really do a benchmarking study on this :-)

The huge Han river is kept clean

and recreation activities are possible. Any river, whether highly polluted or hardly known, can become a high value tourism area if the people and the governments put in their efforts.

Riverbanks can be made into parks

Riverbanks can be flooded, but it does not mean that they can’t be utilized. The intensity of development and utilization can be programmed to cope with the natural events that may occur.

A mountain of garbage into a park

Haneul used to be a mountain of garbage (much like Payatas in Metro Manila). After its lifespan as a dumpsite and years of dead ecosystem and zero habitation. It was turned into a grass park that is now visited by thousands of local and foreign tourists every day

The silvergrass festival in Haneul Park

extends towards the cold nights with proper lighting and facilities provided for the people.

Myeongdong Street

Although many countries including the Philippines have been implementing street food attractions and activities, Myeongdong remains a good benchmarking destination in developing a highly attractive urban attraction that combines interesting activities coupled with street food, shopping and fashion labeling.

Exercise machines in all parks

Whether pocket parks of huge natural areas, many local government units have set up exercise machines not really for tourism but for their people’s wellbeing.

I actually recommended in one city project to set up a wellness park where senior citizens are encouraged to exercise and rewarded by the local government unit. Keeping their senior folks healthier and still productive would mean lesser cost for health assistance.

PWD-friendly parks

This one really affected me. He is an unaccompanied blind person walking in the park. Makes you wish that every area should make really inclusive social amenities and infrastructure even for their people with disabilities (Samcheongdong Park).

Beyond Cosmetics

Seokchon Lake near Lotte Tower is home to this very scenic row of cherry blossom trees. Thousands of people come here to exercise, relax, meet friends and take selfies. But if you see some bubbling in the water, you would realize that this may also serve as a water treatment facility (oxygenation). Yup, you can mask an infrastructure or utility and make it into a tourist attraction.

Everything can be designed

Street features or furniture can be designed to make living or visiting an urban environment more ideal which increases the quality of living and visiting an area (Suwon).

Improving the urban value

Many times, the way to improve the overall value of an urban area is not determined by the amount of land the government sold or converted to business interests. Seoul decided to improve itself by tearing down a road and reviving a dead stream. The result was increased commercial and land value, livability and overall quality of living and business environment for the city and its people which include both the residents and the non-residents workers.

There are still so many things we can learn from South Korea in terms of urban tourism planning, development and management. One take-away we can learn from this country is that development need not be a huge issue so long as it improves the total value of their cities which in turn would produce an ideal habitation and business environment. Plus communities also become highly attractive for travellers in search of quality destinations and transient habitation.

You can read the Part 2 HERE, where we will see the rest of possible benchmarks such as beaches, other urban features and hiking trails, even kpop and kdrama, plus the conclusions. Do let me know your comments and how I can improve this type of article.

If you appreciated this article, you can also read the article on Urban Mobility
You can also check out my online course on practical carrying capacity
as well as the ebook on Practical Ecotourism