Pres. Park: ‘Charging 10,000 won per gimbap is like kicking out tourists’

“Becoming unfriendly to tourists when Korea gets many them after complaining about dearth of tourists visiting the country, and charging 10,000 won (8.5 U.S. dollars) per roll of gimbap (laver and rice roll) is like kicking out tourists,” President Park Geun-hye said on Friday. “Expecting many tourists to come while doing such practice is nonsense.”

She made the remarks at a meeting to strengthen the competitiveness of the culture and tourism industry on the day. “Problems such as low-price tourism products for Chinese group tourists and overcharging taxi fares are serious causes that decrease satisfaction of tourists and tarnish the image of tourism in Korea,” President Park said. “In order to make Korea a place where tourists wish to visit again, we must continuously create an environment where tourists would have zero complaints.”

Citing Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, who reportedly still feels grateful to a villager near his residence for bringing medicine for her sick daughter at dawn while he was working at the Peruvian Embassy to Korea in 2004, Park said, “This is an example how strong influence an act of kindness can have.”

“It is wrong to say that when we look into tourists’ mind, the only thing that remains in their mind is photos. The most memorable thing in tourists’ mind is kindness people in the (host) country display,” the president said. "The most valuable contents (that we can offer) are that ‘when I visited Korea, people were so kind that their kindness will remain in my mind forever.’”

장택동 기자will71@donga.com