Learning from the local craftswomen.
Korea’s rich history and traditions make the modern city of Seoul a delight for tourists.
A SARAWAK student has given public transportation in South Korea a big high-five as a strong support facility for its tourism industry.
“It’s more systematic and orderly in every respect compared to ours,” said Intan Syafiqah after an educational field trip to South Korea from March 12-18 with a group of university mates and lecturers recently.
“Seoul, the capital, has a modern and efficient public transportation that includes both subway trains and buses and those using T-money, a rechargeable series of cards and other smart devices for paying fares in and around Seoul and other areas of South Korea,” she said when asked on the adequacy of tourism-related infrastructures between the two countries.
Intan, who is doing a diploma course on tourism management at MARA University of Technology (UiTM) Samarahan, said T-money could also be used as cash or credit cards in some convenience stores and other businesses.
“Besides, they have their own tourism information counters in most of the places that feature many of their historical sites and places of interest.
“From what we experienced, when using the subway, we could see everyone was in a rush – they appreciate time so much over there. They are very advanced in terms of technology and very systematic – from their guesthouses to their transportation.”
The week-long trip – HOTOUR (Internationalisation Tour to Seoul) – was organised by UiTM Samarahan’s Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2014.
The UiTM group included 16 final-year diploma students in tourism management and lecturers Yaziz Kasim, Johanna Adlin Ahmad and Dayang Sandrawati Abang Johari who specialises in tourism development.
The objectives were to enhance the learning experience of the tourism students from the university; establish good rapport and academic cooperation through visits to learning institutions in South Korea that offer tourism management pro-grammes; improve the students’ understanding of other courses related to their diplomas like tourism geography, transportation in tourism and cross-cultural studies, and promote Visit Malaysia Year 2014 and Malaysia’s Year of Festivals slated for 2015.
South Korea was chosen as the tour destination for several reasons and one was that the group wanted to experience tourism products quite different from those found in Malaysia.
Itan said they were also “very excited” to learn more about South Korea’s advanced technologies, not to mention the world-renowned Korean popular culture or K-Pop, a widespread cultural trend among youths today – apart from looking forward to using their public transportation.
On South Korea being chosen over Thailand, a country known for its tourism industry, she said while the Thais may be focusing more on tourism as their main product, their tourism products leaned more to culture and Nature – which is different from South Korea, now seen as more fashion-forward and suitable for youths.
She also said meeting the Korean people gave them an opportunity to expand their social links and gain more knowledge on other cultures beneficial to tourism students.
“Their food was one of the most interesting parts of the visit, especially dishes like ramen, kimchi, topokki, and Eomuki (fish-cake) which are very appetising. South Korea is one of the countries offering us richness of cultures and uniqueness of lifestyles,” she enthused.
According to the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), 11.1 million foreign tourists visited South Korea, making it the 20th most visited country in the world in 2012 – up from 8.5 million in 2010.
Ian noted that apart from the widespread Korean Wave that has invaded TV screens worldwide, Korea has many historical, yet, interesting, tourism attractions for people to learn more about the Land of the Morning Calm.
Among the places the group visited during the trip ending on March 18 were the tiny half-moon shaped island Nami Island, Everland Theme Park (South Korea’s largest theme park); a communication and observation tower commonly known as Namsan Tower, marking the highest point in Seoul; Seoul Central Mosque, the only mosque in Seoul which also holds lectures in English, Arabic, and Korean where the Friday prayers regularly attract up to 800 worshippers at 1pm; the Prince Sultan Islamic School known as the pioneer in the field of education for the followers of Prophet Muhammad; The King Sejong Story Museum which showcases King Sejong’s most as-tounding contributions to the development of Korea as a nation and Gyeongbokgung Palace, the main and largest palace of the Five Grand Palaces built by the Joseon Dynasty located in nor-thern Seoul.
“From this trip, we learn to respect other people’s cultures and also understand how the things we observed during this educational trip correlate with our faculty’s syllabus.
“Other than that, we also got to see their technological progress, learn their language – and how sellers interact with buyers. We also gained a lot of know-ledge and an opportunity to have a very meaningful experience,” Intan said.
The visit is also aimed at connecting UiTM Samarahan students with the co-mmunity of South Korea before, during and after the visit besides meeting their course syllabus on tour planning and design.