| Summary: | 碩士 === 中國文化大學 === 韓國語文學系 === 105 === The tourism industry has often been called a “no-chimney industry.” In recent years, countries around the world have been committed to developing tourism as a focus in their soft power. The development and promotion of tourism can create many associated economic benefits and positive impacts, including improvements of infrastructure, international popularity of the country, international cultural and economic exchanges, creating a positive image for the country, vitalizing regional industrial structures, increasing the country’s foreign exchange income, and elevating citizens’ standard of living and global perspective. Therefore, all countries in the world try to effectively utilize their natural resources, natural sceneries, and cultural and creative resources to attract international tourists to create maximum economic benefits.
In the past few years, because of the global exchange of multi-media information and the Internet, Taiwan has begun to gain increasing exposure in international tourism. The number of tourists from other Asian countries, in particular, has grown rapidly in recent years. It is apparent that the number of tourists from Korea has been increasing rapidly. After severing diplomatic relations, the exchange between Taiwan and Korea was suspended for a period of time. In 2003, with the collaboration between the Taiwanese and Korean governments, Taiwan implemented visa exemption program with the Republic of Korea. At the end of 2004, the “Air Transportation Agreement Between the Taipei Mission in Korea and the Korean Mission in Taipei” was signed, and mutual visits became increasingly frequent between the two countries. With the popularity of Korean TV shows and the efforts by Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau to promote tourism in Taiwan, the ratio of Korean tourists to all international tourists in Taiwan grew slowly in the early years and has grown rapidly in recent years. Such results show the effectiveness and efficiency of the Tourism Bureau’s measures of promoting Taiwan in Korea as a tourist destination.
In this study, I hope to illustrate the issues faced by Korean tourists in Taiwan’s tourism market, based on my skills in the Korean language and my experiences working as a travel agency operator who receives Korean tourist groups. In addition to impressive tourism statistics, we should further understand the issues involved, so that Taiwan’s tourism industry can develop measures necessary for maximizing the economic benefits of tourism in the trend of group tourists from Korea visiting Taiwan as a popular destination. Instead of blindly bringing tourists to Taiwan and offer low-quality service, we should consider long-term, sustainable development that can expand the popularity that Taiwan currently enjoys while discovering and developing new tourist attractions and benefits. These are the most pressing issues facing Taiwan’s tourism authorities.
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