Yeunjin Kong
yjkong09@stanford.edu
CS73N Assignment 1 due 2007-04-20
The tourist industry in South Korea is suffering from serious deficit. 5 million Koreans travel abroad, but only 5 hundred thousand foreigners visit Korea in a year. Sadly, though Korea has lot to offer to its tourists, the problem behind this deficit is advertisement. The tourist industry has failed to build an image as a suitable tourism site and letting foreigners know what experience they can have in Korea.
I have visited a few countries myself: the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, China, Japan and Spain. Looking back on my travels, I am suspicious that there is something wrong with Korean tourist industry, because it should draw more visitors that it does now. Compared to the nations listed above, the price of goods and services are more competitive in Korea except for China, and Korea tops them all in public security. In addition, there are unique cultural legacies and culinary excellence that Koreans are proud to display, drawing from its legendary ‘fifty-hundred-years-old history.’
My website will offer recommendations of qualified places to go, see, watch, eat, and sleep based on the user’s answers to a small questionnaire, so that all travelers have to do are clicking a few times and buying the airplane ticket to Korea. Only last spring break, I visited the United Kingdom and it was very difficult to come up with a tour plan optimized according to traveler’s interest, length of stay, and budget. The service my website provides will help potential travelers construct an optimal plan efficiently. Also, it serves as a business model, such that it gives ‘priority’ to any of the qualified places in recommending for some advertisement fee. To uphold the integrity of the recommendations, this website will maintain a high standard of excellence for advertisement.
This website will simultaneously benefit people engaged in tourist industry and tourists and be successful business-wise. Also, it is my hope that the recommendations from my website will increase the influx of foreign travelers by informing travelers how attractive Korea is as a tour site. It will also be cheaper than using travel agencies. Thus, lots of people will benefit from this website.
The travel industry is a stable field; there are no sudden ups and downs. Only thorough preparation in the present can guarantee truly remarkable results in the future. We can forecast an increasing worldwide attention to Korea in the near future. International sporting events such as the 13th World Championships in Athletics will be held in 2011 in Daegu, and the 17th Asian Games will be held in 2014 in Incheon. This website will answer the escalating need for travel information and soon will become a cornerstone in the Korean tourism Industry.
