Impact of Tourism in South Korea

Running Head: IMPACT OF TOURISM IN SOUTH KOREA 1
Impact of Tourism in South Korea
Name
Institutional affiliation
Date

IMPACT OF TOURISM IN SOUTH KOREA 2
Tourism impact at social - cultural level on South Korea.
Tourism contributes significantly to the economy of a destination. Tourist normally visit a place with the intention of going to spend.
Their expenditures transforms into sales and profit for various businesses, income for the workers and tax income for the State.
Sectors that benefit directly from tourism are transportation, entertainment among others. Tourism also benefits indirectly other
sectors such as banking, education, construction among others. It creates employment and generate incomes. In 1998, tourism
contributed 4.7% to the GDP of South Korea. The expenditure by visitors was estimated to be 2.7 billion dollars and created over
475,795 jobs (Kim, & Song, 2012)
By 2017, tourism was estimated to have created over 548,500 jobs to the people of South Korea; it is estimated to have increased
by 21% to 560,000 employment opportunities in 2018. The employment is done by airlines, hotel, transportation services of tourism
and travel agents. Leisure sectors and restaurants that are supported by tourism also creates employment.
Tourism is a labor intensive sector. The industry employs good number of women, youth, men and old people in South Korea. It is
one of the leading job creators in the country. It does not require much specialized skills giving everyone a chance to be easily
employed by the sector. Based on the employment opportunities created by tourism, employment chances have either been created
directly or indirectly. Direct opportunities are those that are being supported by tourism directly such as restaurant, hotels,
museums, offices, religious sites, resorts, monuments among others. Whereas indirect employment is through construction
companies, restaurant supply, marketing agencies, and many others.
The sector has offered chances to individual who have might otherwise struggled a lot to secure employment opportunities. It has
also given alternative source of earning to individuals who previously relied on dangerous or illegal work to support themselves. The
crime rates has reduced drastically, as more and more youths are being employed by the sector who would otherwise be involved in
crimes to earn a living.
Tourism in South Korea leads in creating employment as compared to other sectors such as mining, manufacturing industry, higher
education among others.
South Korea is experiencing a rapid increase in number of tourism as the demographics change; senior citizen now travel more,
because of the more available leisure time for them. Increase in tourism results in development of infrastructure, which in turn helps
improve livelihood of the citizens.6.4 Million tourist visit the country annually to see the diverse culture of the locals. In fact, there is a
growing relationship between the culture of people of South Korea and tourism. Existing culture attract more tourist. Their culture is
now famous around the world.
Tourism is one of the major drivers of peace among the people of Korea. It is also linked to the various developments. Tourism
commonly embrace the rising number of new destinations, new tourist destination that is being explored by tourist in South Korea is
helping create more job opportunities. It has also created civic pride through encouraging the sharing of local traditions, culture,
food, and festivals.
One of the most important thing to note about South Korea is that they always maintain their tradition. Many of the different festive
seasons are done annually in different parts of the country. They take pride in their tradition. The rapid rise in tourism has brought
about positive changes to the people of Korea. They are always proud of their tradition and culture; their ceremonies conducted
every year attracts more visitors from around the globe to the country. Their tradition and cultures are not only celebrated by them
but together with people visiting their country.
Since the local communities of South Korea usually interact with tourists from diverse background, some of them have change their
lifestyle to try and copy visitor’s; embracing practices of the tourist. There has been also an improvement in living standards of local
since infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, are being develop courtesy of tourist. There exist social and cultural events where
people get to be entertained. With regards to the improved leisure and sports facilities created to be used by tourist, the local
population usually get to use them during out of the tourist season.