A special police unit that patrols tourist spots was launched in South Korea on Oct. 16. The aim of the tourism police is to make areas that are popular among foreign visitors safe through their patrol activities, according to sources.
The number of foreign tourists to South Korea reached a record 11 million in 2012. More and more people are interested in the country, as its music and TV dramas are popular worldwide these days. The South Korean government wants to attract more foreign tourists to the county because they spend money by shopping and staying at hotels.
However, petty crime targeting foreign tourists has been a problem. Tourists’ complaints include overcharging by taxi drivers. Many have also complained that they were accosted by strangers on the street in shopping and entertainment districts and taken to shops where merchandise is priced higher than at normal shops.
The tourism police unit, consisting of 101 officers, will handle such problems. Their stylish uniform was made by a designer who also created a Korean pop star’s costumes. [Japan News]
I agree with this article. There should be the special police units who patrol in the tourist spot to reduce the number of petty crime.
ReplyDeletePeople sometimes too enjoy with the new place such as a tourist spot in other countries. They often forget to put the bags in front of them to make it safer from the theft. They did not keep their eyes in their bags especially in the crowded place. It is really danger, remembering some good theft still can stole the valuable things even though they already put their bags in front of their bodies.
I think this kind of policy should be applied in Europe as well because there of are lots of white collar theft. We should increase the self-awareness as well.
Respond to the uniform of the police, it is pretty cool and sometimes the tourist are would like to take pictures with them. I am surprised that the uniform seems very special because of it was made by the Korean Pop Stars designer too.
I am the one of many people who craving to have a trip to South Korea. Since Korean Pop is booming in recently years (not only Korean pop, but also the drama), it is not strange if South Korea is being the most wanted destination to holiday. Because tourist should be really curious about the location of the drama taken, how Korean people life, and about the food there. So, I think this is why South Korea launches tourism polices. Because they wont miss the chance that they already get. They wont make tourist feel disappointed after visited South Korea.
ReplyDeleteThe government of South Korea must be give the special attention to the visitors who came to their country. So they would give a great service. It is good idea to made attractive costumes from Korean Pop Stars designer.
As the precentage of tourist is increasing, it will also happened to crimes. This is why tourism police is needed to protect them from the theft. I think Indonesia should follow this idea, so the visitors will feel comfortable during the trip and want to come back again someday.
If I am not mistaken, Yogyakarta has "Polisi Pariwisata".
ReplyDeleteI think it is a good idea to place tourism police in every area that popular among tourist is safe. The purpose of this tourism police isn’t only to ensure that tourist that visit that place is protected from any kind of crime such as thievery but the police must ensure that the price given to the tourist especially foreign tourist is the same as the local tourist.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Indonesia also should place tourism police in areas that popular among tourist this is because the number of crime that happened to the tourist in Indonesia are still high and some of the people that sell goods to the tourist still applied foreign price for foreign tourist. For example: recently a foreigner found that he lost her iPhone and soon after that they realize that it is stolen by a person around him. He was chase for him and luckily one of the member of Paspampres can catch the thief.
This article makes me craving for going to Korea. After knowing that South Korea launched tourism police, I think they are really serious for increasing the amount of the tourists in their country. I have to admit that the government is really smart in seeing the chance to bring in the visitors. Since Kpop is booming these years, they use the popular Korean idols to promote the country (they used Super Junior and Girls Generation to promote its capital city in 2009 and it increased Seoul's visitors so much) and they also use TV dramas by providing the good places as the shooting locations too, so the viewers of the dramas want to go to Korea because seeing the beautiful locations on TV (me, for example). It's a relief that they decided to launch the tourism police to make the visitors feel safer and more comfortable in visiting their country.
ReplyDeleteAs the example of the problems that had stated above, my fellow kpop fans who visited Korea few months ago said that the taxi they ride charged them so much money (more expensive than it should be) when they want to watch a music show, and there are some rumors that saying there are some pickpockets in the bus station who target the tourists as their preys (well, kinda same with Indonesia, I think).
In my opinion, tourism regions in Indonesia, like Bali, Jakarta, Bandung, should have tourism police too. Their duty is more to protect the tourists from the crimes, and yeah there is "Polisi Pariwisata" here in Yogyakarta just like Mr. Adrian said. I haven't seen the tourism polices directly yet but you can find it via google.
I agree that a special police are needed to deploy in tourist spot, that’s because tourist have a lot of money that can attract people to do bad things such as burglary. This is a great idea and it should be implemented in cities that attract much tourism. Although I don't think it's important to have a specific tourism police. I think that the government should place regular police because they are defending people's rights. But for the overcharged price for the tourist, I didn’t know how the police handle this kind of problem, whether they give information to the tourist or maybe close the entire store that have unreasonable price. Local police or government should give a regulation or set a certain price that could benefit and satisfy both sellers and buyers. In Bali, taxies charge over 200 thousand rupiah for expats even though their destination is not even that far away. Tourist who doesn't know the normal price would easily agree to this price. This doesn't only occur in taxies, but also in traditional that doesn't have a fixed price like retail stores. Even they charge more money for expats in many attractions sites.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion tourism police is a good idea, every tourist has his/her own right to be protected, they deserve to the appropriate hotel, they need to pay taxi or traditional food by compatible, they must treat well in the country. South Korea's government seems serious to increase the amount of tourist in their country, even last year they already record 11 million tourist visited their country the government see the chance to have more visitor to their country. I think they want the economic in south Korea increase rapidly and their exchange rate also raising and more over the welfare of their citizen is going better.
ReplyDeleteEvery tourist that come to a new country commonly did not know what is the worth price to buy this goods, or to pay the taxi, or to pay traditional transportation and so on. It is not fair when sometimes there are 2 group of tourist from different country pay different amount of money to get the same quantity and quality of a product. Because of that reason, tourism police is very useful, may be the government already set the standard price of goods thing, also for the normal price for taxi, but is that will work in the field?
May be some of seller or taxi driver disobey that standard price, the result is the tourist feel that they have been cheated, the next impact is they don't want to come back again and probably they will tell their friend that the country service is bad, and the visitor that come to south Korea will decrease.
I think the tourist policy purpose is to implement the standard price from government and to protect the tourist rights.
With the presence of tourism police, it sure makes the tourist feel more comfortable and safe during their vacation. I think it is a great and brave idea for the government to release this program. It shows that government concern about the foreigner who come to their country. Not every country wants to do this because it will increase the expenditure through the country. But the government here concerns that there are more advantages that the country will received. Tourism sector in South Korea has been giving a huge contribution to the country so the government willing to take this steps to guarantee the tourist that they are protected. Besides, I think the government realizes that this also could be the new object of tourism. One of prove is the government are willing to make a uniform that designed by a famous designer. It sure cost more money to the government than the usual police uniform. So the government can kill two birds with one stone. They can keep the tourist and the area safe, and also provide a unique tourism trend.
ReplyDeleteI think the concept of tourism police is a good idea, especially in crowded places where petty crimes happen easily and quite often. This gives the tourists a feeling of security and might scare off people who intend to commit petty crimes. As Korea becomes more and more popular for tourists, it makes perfectly sense to establish a tourism police if the country wants to keep and enhance the great number of tourists. However, I’m not sure if the pure presence of police intimidates the people enough so that they stop scamming. Petty crimes are usually not very noticeable for a third person and by the time the tourist realizes that he was betrayed, it is often already too late. Examples are too high taxi prices and people that take the tourists to shops with highly priced merchandises. The best would be if tourists gather information beforehand so that they know the tricks and the regular prices for taxis, food, souvenirs and so on. Travel guides like “Lonely Planet” usually warn the travelers by explaining about the scheming in the respective country.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the comments above, it is a good idea to launch tourism police to assure all the areas that are popular among foreign visitors safe and increased visitor’s comfort during their holiday, since it becomes the most attractive destination for tourist to visit. Before that I ever read the article from “Travelist” magazine, it is said that Nepal also has tourism police, even this unit is including to a special unit of Nepal Police, which is working under The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. Absolutely, they also make the visitors easier to find information about several aspects that they need during the leisure time. Their advise and recommendation for visitors in safety and security during traveling are very useful. Beside that, in my view tourism police can help the local government to respond many problems or complaints about what should be improved and how should it be. So beside help the visitors, tourism police can also be a media of public opinions.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a good idea for having a tourism police since there has been an increase in the past few years after the Kpop and K-Drama trends that keep on rising in the past few years that successfully attract their fans to go to Korea. I think in every season in Korea the country is never get less visitors every year, it keeps rising year by year. I agree with Anissa’s comment, the popular Korean idols is used to promote the country to visit the country ( The popular idols like Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, and 2PM ) and by TV dramas as well. I have read some news about the amount of visitors that visit some tourist attraction in a day can exceeds 20.000 visitors a day. That is a huge amount of visitors and I think by assigning a few amount of security would be too risky. There’s still a possibility of “pickpocket” could happen especially in a crowded place. By launching the police tourism, I think it is one of the example that the government is actually concerned about the safety of the visitors during their visits to Korea.
ReplyDeleteA tourism police eh? Even this way the police can be a tourist attraction. I googled up Korea's Tourist Police and found out that the uniforms were Gangnam Style-inspired, how cool is that? They would certainly attract tourist's attention, and that would drive the tourist to take pictures with them – I would definitely take a picture with one of them if I ever come across one when I visit Korea. It really is a great idea for Korea to launch Tourist Police since it could be a price-effective method of preserving valuable items from petty crimes like vandalism. This way, they could prevent damages on artifacts that would otherwise be priceless. Not only does the valuable artifacts and touristic items need protection, but the tourists themselves need such protection since tourists are the most prone to fraud or theft. I was thinking of how Indonesian can use this as an example since Indonesia has a lot of touristic destinations, until Mr. Adrian mentioned about the ‘Polisi Pariwisata’. I never knew they existed.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good way to maintain the amount of tourist visiting Korea, with this new tourism police it shows to the tourist that the Korea government is very concern about the guest that is visiting Korea, this new police will make increase for the amount of tourist, this police has a very good task that is protect tourist from unwanted activities, if the illegal practice like scam in Korea is gone, I hundred percent believe that the amount of tourist visiting Korea will increase. In Indonesia we know this tourism police as a “polisi pariwisata”, but I rarely found one of this “polisi pariwisata” in Yogyakarta, but in Bali there is many “polisi pariwisata” I hope the “polisi pariwisata” can also do their job professionally and make tourism in Bali increased, and last Indonesia government should add the number of “polisi pariwisata” so the tourist will be more easily found one of them.
ReplyDeleteSouth Korea is the one country that many people want to visit in past few years. And most of the tourist come from Asia such as Japan, China, Thailand, etc. There are many Chinese and Japanese tourist in South Korea because it is not far from their country. People interested to visit South Korea because of the “hallyu” or Korean wave. The K-drama and K-pop are now booming in almost all over the world, not just in Asia. I totally agree with the idea that South Korea launches the tourism police for the tourists. From the decision made, it shows that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has big concern for the tourists who are visiting South Korea. While the number of the visitors in South Korea increase, it may cause an increase on crimes too. Well, about the petty crime happened to the foreign tourists, I feel sad for them. By launching the tourism police the safety of the tourist will be better and can increase the number of tourists to South Korea.
ReplyDeleteThe last paragraph sounds so ridiculous to me. Since when do police men need fashionable, well-designed outfits to be respected? Do they also receive some fancy accessories? Also this phrase is ridiculous:
ReplyDelete[…] They were accosted by strangers […] and taken to shops where merchandise is priced higher than at normal shops.
This happens to tourists in many countries and if they were just a little bit clever then they would inform themselves before visiting that country or before buying merchandise. But on the other hand, I can understand the local government that they don’t want their people to become tourist-hunters and get a negative reputation from that. Also it could be useful to prevent tourists from pickpockets and save the police station and the tourists the whole stress connected with losing the credit cards and/or the passport. But I am not sure if police men could really prevent tourists from all petty crimes as some happen so quickly. So it’s rather the presence of an authority that should prevent criminals.
Wow, it such a great idea by the south Korean government, the tourism police. South Korea is a country with many foreign visitors from around the world, based on the article every year South Korea can have 11 million tourists, oh it’s a very great number. the tourism police is needed to help the foreign tourist there, maybe not just helping the tourist, but also to make them feel safer, because There is no doubt there will be more charge for the tourist, like this article mentioned, the taxi driver will overcharge the tourist and the merchandise shop will set the higher price too for the tourist.
ReplyDeleteAnd the tourism police also wear the uniform just like Korean pop star hahaha; it’s a good way to attract more visitors to come there.
The cases like I mentioned is not happen just in Korea, the country such as Indonesia those cases also been experienced by the tourist. In Yogyakarta the becak driver will give higher price for foreigner tourist than a local tourist, although Mr. Adrian has mentioned that Yogyakarta also have the tourism police called “polisi pariwisata” but they can’t do anything to stop them.
This is good way of attracting tourist visiting a country. By launching tourism police, it could make things easier to handle. Not only in South Korea but Indonesia should also launch these kind of units that patrols tourists spots. Its because it has the same reason like South Korea, theres lots of complaints overcharging by taxi drivers and quieit a lot of tourist were taken to shops where merchandise is priced higher than at normal shops. Eventhough now, some say that certain places in Indonesia already has tourism police, I don't think there making an affect to change these kinds of stuff. There not really doing a good job such as tourism police in South Korea do. They should follow the steps of Korean's by protecting tourist in a professional way and prevent crimes so we could attract more tourist to the country.
ReplyDeleteAs Korea becomes more and more popular for tourists it is a good idea to establish a tourist police. Even though I don’t know if a tourist police really reduces crimes, because the thieves who steal money or phones do it in a big crowd and they have excellent techniques to steal without being seen. When the tourists find out their property got stolen it is already too late. But the tourist police can at least give visitors a feeling of security and might even scare thieves. Nevertheless, some of the tourists’ complaints are a bit ridiculous in my opinion. If you are a tourist and you go to a country where taxi prices are not fixed it is quite clear that the driver charges a higher price. And if strangers start talking to you and want to show you shops, as a smart tourist, you could imagine that these shops charge rather high prices. Therefore, tourists should think more or read their travel guides which always have a section like lonely planet’s “dangers and annoyances” where you can read about the most common tricks locals apply to rip you off.
ReplyDeleteA good news come from South Korea, the police department of South Korea is so innovative and creative. The government of South Korea realizes that number of tourist that come to South Korea is gradually increase. And it was recorded the number of tourist that came to South Korea reached 11 million in 2012. The petty crime targeting tourist has been a problem, and to solve the problem, police department of South Korea made a special police to protect them. This kind of policy should be made in others country which have lots of tourist. This kind of policy can decrease crime to tourist and make tourist feel safer to travel abroad. By the decreasing amount of crime, it will affect to the amount of tourist that come to the country. It also will affect to the economic growth of a country. Moreover if a country set the visa fee to enter the country, amount of tourists that come will give a big income to the country itself.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been to South Korea once about two years ago. There were really a lot of local tourists and foreign tourists. K-Pop is indeed really attracts a lot of people. But, I don’t really see there was any tourism police. By launching its tourism police, it proves that South Korea really cares about the tourists. The example of petty crime targeting foreign tourists really gives worried feeling to the tourists. Overcharging by taxi driver maybe won’t be happened to the local tourists, but it is really possible to happen to the foreign tourists. The complaint that is made by the foreign tourists that they are often accosted by strangers on the street in shopping and entertainment districts and taken to shops where merchandise is priced higher than at normal shops, it fortunately didn’t happen to me back then. I’m really interested in the uniform that was worn by the tourism police. I’ve seen the uniform that is made by a designer who also creates a Korean pop star’s costumes. It’s really stylish. The tourism police look very charming.
ReplyDeleteI think the government makes a smart move here. As Korea has more and more tourists coming from around the world, they need to care more about tourism. It can be fatal if they get bad reputation because of those things. I love the idea of tourism police. It will be very helpful to increase tourists’ enjoyment during their staying in Korea. To decrease such unpleasant things will make visitors happy and have the desire to come back or at least to promote Korea as a fine destination to travel.
ReplyDeleteAreas that are popular among foreign visitors definitely need more protection. Hopefully, those patrol activities will prevent tourists to have unpleasant memory of criminality and help them to have more relaxing feeling to enjoy their vacation.
Well, it’s not only South Korea facing such problems. Therefore, I think launching tourism police for world’s tourism will guarantee their safety while increasing the prospective chance for this kind of business.
I thought the tourism police would handle tourists who do violence or crimes and they would give lighter sentences. But after I read the article to the very end, it’s all the other way around. Maybe they came with this idea because the amount of tourists in South Korea is exploding. “The number of foreign tourists to South Korea reached a record 11 million in 2012. More and more people are interested in the country, as its music and TV dramas are popular worldwide these days.” Wow, what about 2013 after these K-pop stars are already well known to all around the world? It’s must be massive. Many of my friends who adore K-pop chose to live permanently and have permanent resident in South Korea rather that any other Asia or Western countries. If I’m not mistaken, this phenomenon is called Hallyu Wave. When the popularity of South Korea culture is increasing. It’s indeed contains huge profit for their government, because of course tourists pay visa whenever they go abroad to South Korea. And of course they spend money by shopping and staying at hotels. So the income for Businessmen in South Korea will be also increasing. “However, petty crime targeting foreign tourists has been a problem. Tourists’ complaints include overcharging by taxi drivers.” They tend to think they can get more profit from cheating the tourists. This tourism police is actually a great idea. So the tourists felt secure and comfortable while touring around the country. Thank you for reading.
ReplyDeleteI think this reflect how Korea really appreciate tourism world, especially customers of their tourism sectors. They want that every people coming to Korea feel save and satisfy with entertainment they offer. Costumers satisfy is really important, and customers satisfy can be translated in to many factors. From the happiness of the tourist while they visiting the place, how good the supporting transportations and their safety from criminal. By providing a special police that guard every aspect of sectors that I already mentioned, I think it’s a special attention to the customers to. The problem sometimes is like in Indonesia, in some tourism spot the police that guarding the place sometimes didn’t know enough the problem they facing with. They have to know better the problem of tourism in that area for example. Like the police have to aware from which sectors customers can be threatened. So customers can feel safely doing their holidays in other countries or area they don’t know.
ReplyDeleteSouth Korea is a country which has been developing in almost every aspect of the country. They develop their music through K-Pop, and they also develop their tourism. The number of foreign tourists that come to South Korea amazed me a lot. 11 million in 2012 shows us that South Korea now has been the country where people enjoy visiting. The country is now being one of the targeted countries for people to visit. The policy to launch tourism police is a very brilliant policy from the South Korean’s governor. I think it is a common thing to establish a policy like this considering the amount of tourist who come to South Korea. It can reduce the numbers of criminal in the country, and will keep the country safe. This policy can also boost the number of tourist because tourists will feel a lot more safer when they know that there are police that will keep eyes on them. A brilliant movement from the South Korea government.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, having tourism polices is a very good idea. It helps to keep maintain the safety of areas that are popular among foreign visitors. When the object of tourisms are safe, the visitors will feel secure and comfortable and they will come back to visit that country again, and the visitors may also recommend their friends, family, and their colleagues to go to that country. It means there are going to be a lot more people coming to the country, which will impact on the increase of the country’s national income. As all you know, providing tourism policies are not cheap. I mean it is costly, but it will also sell the comfort and safety feeling while visitors on vacation, which is good because they will bring more opportunity to sell the country to others new visitors. The new visitors will recommend the country to be the destination of their friends, family, and their colleagues. And It will be continuing and so on.
ReplyDeleteTourism police became an important part in the development of tourism sector. The government should provide a safe situation in order to increase the number of visits. South Korea also saw this opportunity in the tourism aspect. They provided a special police to keep the tourist from the crime. They released this special patrol unit on 16 October. South Korea sustained the increasing amount of visitor after the K-Pop invasion. People came from the around of the world to see their idol or to visit the place in the Korean drama. A lot of tourists also attracted the criminal to get money. They used this opportunity to get extra income by stealing from the tourist. So, the role of the tourism police became necessary to prevent and reduce the crime rate in South Korea. The government of South Korea gave a special attention in this sector because tourism produced the high income.
ReplyDeleteJust like Rani, when I first read the title of this article, I thought the tourism police’s job is to handle tourist who do violence and things that against South Korea regulation. Then when I read the full article, I realize that the tourism police was launched to help tourist that have problem. I think it is a good idea to launch this kind of police that especially help foreign tourist. When I went to South Korea 3 years ago, I got lost in the middle of the street. I wanted to buy something and I was looking for a mini market. My parents were having something to do at that time so I had to go by myself. After I found the mini market, I wanted to go back to the hotel but I forgot the way. I was so scared. I asked people but they cannot speak English. I go around and around and fortunately I found my hotel! I was so happy. I already think of bad things that probably happen if I could not find my way back to the hotel. By the presence of this tourism police, I think it will be so much easier for the foreign tourist to go around and avoid being lost.
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed a new and interesting innovation by the police force of South Korea. The increasing popularity of K-Pop sensation brought a lot of tourists from all around the world, craving to see their favorite artist, buy the official merchandise, or go to historical places and drama locations. However, the rapid increases of pickpockets or taxi drivers overcharging tourists are a recurring issue throughout holiday destinations in various parts of the world. Once, when I went to Hong Kong, my family and me took a cab from Disney Land back to our hotel. As we arrived, he charged us with about 100 Hong Kong Dollar! My uncle was furious but we cannot find any evidence to back up our anger. Reluctantly, we paid up and talked to the hotel receptionist about this. He told us that next time, we should call out the receptionist whenever that kind of situation pops up. Many taxi drivers are setting a whole different tariff when they realized that we are tourist. It is nice to know that the tourism police in South Korea might reduce holiday crimes and make us tourist feel more comfortable in their country.
ReplyDeleteknown the worldwide. As we all know K-Pop has become a new trend of world music. You can find K-Pop everywhere in the world. Gangnam style has become world dance, boy and girl bands has become a new trend in the world.
ReplyDeleteIf they want to attract the tourist they have to make their tourism better. And this tourism police make their tourism more discipline and the tourist will see their country is very good for them to visit often. The tourism police will create secure feeling to the tourist vising South Korea.
Korea has a very interesting way to attract more tourists to the country. First, through TV dramas and K-pop is very famous all over the world. The next example is by launching the tourism police. I think the presence of the police is not able to maintain the security of tourists as a whole, especially with their clothes like that. We ourselves feel shy with their presence. But well, this is one of the great concerns from the government to the advancement of tourism in the region. They also do not want to a make a local shortage of tourists simply because a bad reputation due to the high number of criminal.
ReplyDeleteTourists who have to pay more than the normal cost sounded familiar in tourism objects. Preferably, the tourists who come have to prepare themselves in advance. They can find out in advance the prices are worth before they go or buy.
Thank you for this valuable information, I hope it is okay that I bookmarked your website for further references.
ReplyDeletebusiness registration in korea