Seoul City to provide tailored tourist programs

Seoul City announced Wednesday that it would customize tourist programs, such as renewing tour routes, to better cater to the needs of different nationals visiting the city.

This year, existing tour routes will be regrouped into six categories ― history, arts, shopping, natural ecology, local neighborhood and “theme tour.”

The city selected the six themes based on a survey with visitors to Seoul. A total of 41 sightseeing activities have been offered so far.

The shopping-focused routes will be divided into industry, fashion and beauty to target Chinese visitors, while the arts program will cover traditional culture, food, religion and “hallyu,” which will be aimed at both Japanese and American sightseers, the city said.

According to the survey conducted last year, Japanese tourists preferred independent travel with a focus on hallyu, while Chinese tourists mostly picked group packages with an interest in food and shopping. Meanwhile, Americans favored independent travel, but they also wanted to experience diverse traditional culture and festivals, the city said.

The history tour route will show Korean history from the Three Kingdoms Period (B.C. 57-A.D. 676) to the present. The neighborhood sightseeing program will offer a glimpse of four regions ― eastern, western, southern and northern Seoul, it added.

The natural ecology tour package will focus on visiting mountains and rivers and the “theme tour” package will offer a sightseeing tour at night.

The city said it would also provide more sightseeing opportunities in the tour packages.

Modern structures such as the Seoul Anglican Cathedral and the Salvation Army building will be included in the Deoksugung Palace-Jeong-dong route in the center of the capital, officials said. The Fortress Wall of Seoul, the capital’s traditional defensive wall, and Dongmyo shrine will also be added to the Dongdaemun area course, they added.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)