Foreign tourist arrivals in Busan topped 2.42 million in the first half of this year and spending surged, but visitors on the ground voiced considerable frustration over basic amenities such as trash cans and public restrooms, a city survey found. Tourists gave high marks to the city's natural setting, food and the friendliness of residents, while continuing to cite difficulties with transportation and payments.
One in Four Foreign Visitors Cite Trash Cans, Restrooms
Busan Metropolitan City said on the 2nd that it conducted 30-minute in-depth interviews with 34 foreign tourists at major attractions including Haeundae, Gamcheon Culture Village and Yongdusan Park from the 22nd to the 24th of last month.
The most frequently cited problem was basic tourist infrastructure. A quarter of respondents said they were inconvenienced by a shortage of public trash cans or by unclean public restrooms.
Transportation-related complaints followed at 18.8%. Respondents pointed to difficulty topping up transit cards and insufficient promotion of subway passes. Complaints about guidance, including multilingual route maps and map translations, and payment issues such as venues not accepting credit cards each accounted for 12.5%. Requirements for a Korean phone number or an alien registration card, along with complicated booking procedures, drew 9.4%.
By nationality, tourists from Chinese-speaking regions called for multilingual labeling on taxi reservations and vacancy signs, wider acceptance of WeChat Pay and Alipay, and simpler verification for public bike-sharing. Japanese tourists pointed to restroom cleanliness, cigarette butts around restaurants and sewer odors in the Seomyeon area. European and American tourists said Busan tourism information was hard to find on Google Maps and that awareness of the Visit Busan Pass was low.
Respondents were positive about the city's mix of sea and mountains, its lively atmosphere and its variety of food. The friendliness of residents they met while traveling stood out as one of Busan's main draws and a reason to return.
2.42 Million Foreign Visitors in First Half, Spending Up 63%
Even as the need to upgrade tourist amenities grows, the number of foreign visitors to Busan is rising quickly. According to data the city released on the 30th of last month, 2,420,629 foreign tourists visited Busan in the first half of this year, a 44% increase from a year earlier. That already amounts to 60.5% of the annual target of 4 million.
Taiwan accounted for the largest share at 477,606 visitors, followed by China with 468,876, Japan with 291,141 and the United States with 219,147. Chinese arrivals jumped 90.7% from a year earlier and Taiwanese arrivals rose 54.0%.
Spending climbed as well. An analysis of credit card big data by the Korea Tourism Organization showed foreign tourists spent 591.4 billion won in Busan in the first half, up 63.0% from 362.1 billion won a year earlier.
June drew the most visitors of any month this year at 484,057. The city attributed the increase to the "BTS World Tour Arirang IN Busan" concert. During the concert week of June 8-14, the foreign floating population within a 3-kilometer radius of Busan Asiad Main Stadium reached 730,000, up 341.9% from the previous week.
Busan plans to pursue improvements in travel convenience alongside growth in visitor numbers. The city will share the survey results with relevant departments and district offices and, once a third supplementary budget bill clears the city council, will start with measures that can be implemented immediately, such as installing trash cans at major attractions.
If the interviews prove effective, the city plans to conduct them regularly starting next year to monitor complaints from foreign tourists on an ongoing basis. "The time has come to look after the qualitative completeness of tourism — how satisfied and how moved travelers who come to Busan feel," Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo said.
