Busan is good

Coastal city embracing foreign friends

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Whether for tourists or residents in Busan City, the city has numerous support programs aimed specifically at foreigners. With the city’s help, foreign visitors can enjoy a fun, hassle-free trip, and residents can live comfortably with all the services they need.

Comfortable tour for the tourists

From January to April this year, Busan City attracted 690,000 tourists, an increase of 26,000 over the same period last year. In order to reach its annual goal of 2.5 million foreign tourists this year, the city has worked to make traveling around that bit easier.

Language is typically one of the biggest obstacles during travels overseas. For this reason, Busan City has worked to offer interpretation services around the city. Haeundae tourism office (051-749-5700, Haeundae Beach) provides help in English and Japanese, and the main tour sites and restaurants in Busan City have information printed in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese. For signs that are already in place in foreign languages, the city is working to ensure they are as accurate and error-free as possible.

The city has also developed a smartphone app that lets visitors get quick and easy information about Busan City. After downloading the 'Busan tour' app via app stores, visitors will have instance access to all the info on Busan tour sites, food, accommodation, shopping, festivals and performances that they could possibly need.

Other difficulties can arise because of different currencies. But Busan City's tour card makes it a cinch to pay for transportation, accommodation and tickets, and even offers discounts on shopping. Called the Korea Pass Busan Tour Card, it functions just like a debit card at participating stores, and any outstanding credit can be refunded at the end of the visitor's stay. The cards are available from Gimhae International Airport, International Passengers Terminal and convenience stores.

Foreign residents living like citizens

Busan City has recently opened many programs aimed at foreign residents, including a mobile consulting center and special call centers that can provide help.

Haeundae-gu District has opened a "foreigners only window" staffed by fluent English speakers, making filling in forms and other official tasks far less onerous for foreigners than it was before.

The office has translated 41 types of official documents into four languages - English, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese - and placed them all at the foreigners window for easy access. (051-749-4000)

The city also operates a "global real estate brokerage office," where staff fluent in English or Japanese offer advice to foreigners looking to buy their own property, or to receive expert counseling in other real estate issues.

Thanks to an agreement with the post office, foreign spouses can now receive a 10 percent discount on EMS services when sending things to their parents, families and friends in their home country.

In addition, the Busan Global Center is playing a more general support role for foreigners living in the city. The center provides consulting in everyday issues such as visas and part-time jobs, and serves as a one-stop service center for banking and mobile phone services. The center also offers classes in Korean language, helping foreigners settle right into life in Busan City. (051-668-7900)

The source of news: Dynamic Busan