Korea's Diplomacy to Attract Visitors

Source : http://www.visitkorea.or.id

It is hard to deny that Korea has its own unique charm that makes a lot of people want to visit the country. Many people perceive that Korea is one of the most-wanted country to visit from various sources such as drama, film, idols, etc. Living in Indonesia, a country with majority of people hold Islam and have a lot of Muslim friends, make me realize the importance of prayer room and halal food for Muslims especially during travelling to non-majority-Muslim countries like Korea. Fortunately, Korea shows its care towards Muslim tourists and started to let them enjoy Korea better through soft diplomacy actions such as delivering information that might needed for Muslim tourists at its best, improving facilities in public places that are more friendly to Muslim tourists, providing halal marks/certificates for some restaurants and snacks, and promoting its developing on becoming Muslim friendly country through some events.

The first and the main way that Korea has for Muslim tourists is providing information through some media such as booklets, brochures, apps, websites, even from Korea Tourism Organization or Korea Cultural Center in each country. There are some information that are provided such as halal restaurant, pork free restaurant, mosque location, availability of prayer room, prayer direction (Qibla), and even prayer time. Muslim tourists can get those information easily from a simple browsing, download apps, or ask directly to Korea Tourism Organization in their country. Sources of information that have been launched such as Halal Guidebook “Muslim Friendly Restaurant in Korea”[i], Korea Halal Industry Association Website[ii], Korea Travel Guide for Muslim Visitor[iii], and Halal Korea App[iv] can be accessed easily and help them in keep doing activities based on what they believe in their religion while travelling.

Second, Korea shows an improvement in providing prayer rooms in public places. The purposes of providing prayer room are not only for making Muslim tourists feel comfortable to pray during travelling, but also to be considered as a special attraction for Muslim tourists to visit the place. Gyeonggi-do has seen the increasing number of Muslim tourists due to availability of prayer rooms in Everland, Korean Folk Village, Petite France, etc[v].  During his visit in Jakarta on August 12^th 2015, Jeju Governor-Mr. Won Hee-Ryong, also mentioned that even Jeju government put attention on providing prayer rooms in public places along with the prayer direction (Qibla).

Source : http://www.visitkorea.or.id

Third, one of the wish list in visiting Korea is to try its tempting food and snacks. Unfortunately, “halal” is the most huge barrier for Muslim tourists in visiting Korea. The terms halal itself means permissible, based on Islamic Shari’ah[vi]. It is not only about food containing no pork, but even the slaughtering procedure has to follow the Islamic rules[vii].  Luckily, Korea has put special attention on this and started to deliver information to public which restaurants are halal certified, self-certified, pork-free, or Muslim friendly. To make more people aware about this, Korea Tourism Organization even makes an event called “Halal Restaurant Week” so that people are easier to choose where and what to eat[viii]. Besides food, some Korea snacks companies also shows their care toward Muslim friends by proceed their products to get halal-certified and put the logo on the packs such as Nongshim’s Ramyun that has received its halal certification in 2011 and Crispy Seaweed Snacks by CJ (Cheil Jedang)[ix]. Now, Muslims tourists can enjoy the taste of Korea better than before.

And for the last one, Korea supports all actions above through events. One of them is “Halal Restaurant Week” that has been mentioned before. This year, this event is going to be held on Sept 1st - Oct 31st 2017. There will be hundreds of restaurants participated and they are divided into 4 categories such as :
1. Halal certified
Halal certified restaurants that has been issued by Korea Muslim Federation
2. Self certified
Restaurants owned by Muslim
3. Muslim friendly
Restaurants that provide halal food but still selling alcoholic drinks
4. Pork free
Restaurants without halal food but also there is no food contains pork sold.

If you will be around Korea on that period of time, you can enjoy this event by downloading the online booklet in www.hrwkorea.or.kr. The booklet not only provides you some information about restaurants in Korea but also discount coupons for some attractions even for renting Hanbok.

In short, Korea has shown its attention in welcoming Muslim tourists to enjoy the beauty of Korea better. Through its soft diplomacy actions, Korea assures people especially Muslim tourists that Korea is a friendly country even for Muslims.

Kimcheers! :)

---

[i] http://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Travel/view?articleId=124713

[ii] http://koreahalal.org/

[iii] http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/e_book/access/ecatalog_pt.jsp?Dir=255&catimage=&cpage=1&callmode=

[iv] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.halalfind.app.halalkorea&hl=en

[v] http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/AKR/FU_EN_15.jsp?cid=1820759

[vi] http://halalfoodauthority.com/definition-of-halal

[vii] http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y2770e/y2770e08.htm

[viii] Press release Korea Tourism Organization Jakarta, October 24^th 2016

[ix] http://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Business/view?articleId=124815

[x] Press release Korea Tourism Organization Jakarta, December 14^th 2015