Shopping scams South Korea's biggest complaint from tourists

By Hoang Phong May 7, 2024 | 04:48 pm PT

Tourists shop at a store in South Korea. Photo by Reuters

Foreign tourists' largest complaint in South Korea is shopping rip-offs, according to a new report, which also cited taxi scams and poor accommodation services as the next most-pervasive issues.

South Korea received a total of 808 official complaints from international visitors last year, of which 23.8% were related to shopping issues such as price disputes, troubles with tax refunds and demands for returns or exchanges, according to the 2023 Tourist Complaint Analysis released by the Korea Tourism Organization.

There were 170 cases of complaints about taxi service, or 18.8%, and 142 cases of accommodation-related issues, or 15.5%.

Many cases of taxi rip-offs targeting foreign tourists have been recently reported in South Korea, The Korea Times reported.

The South Korean government has vowed to improve convenience for tourists and foster regional tourism.

In recent years, many Chinese tourists have been lured to buy extremely low tour packages, only to then be constantly pressured by their tour guides to buy overpriced products such as cosmetics, nutritional supplements and duty-free items, The Korea Herald has reported.