North Korea currently welcomes just slightly more than 100,000 tourists a year, but it recently announced ambitious targets to attract two million visitors by 2020.
- POSTED: 24 Oct 2015 22:16
PYONGYANG: People like web designer Fann Saw and her husband are fuelling a growth in the small but burgeoning tourism sector in North Korea.
Last year, they paid about US$2,000 each for a 12-day tour of the country. This year they forked over more than US$1,000 each just to visit Pyongyang for five days.
“We are very, very curious about everything," said the 26-year-old Malaysian. "Last year, when we were here, we were in a bigger tour so we couldn't really take lots of pictures. We wanted to come back to see more details like the different kinds of scenery, so we decided to come back again.”
Despite tight restrictions and reportedly widespread human rights abuses, the number of people visiting North Korea has risen in recent years. In 2005, the number of Western tourists visiting North Korea was said to be in the hundreds. Today, 5,000 visit it every year, not including the estimated 100,000 Chinese tourists who visit the country annually.
“We just want to see how people live and maybe understand their point of view,” said Andrea, an Italian tourist.
Tourism officials are hoping to receive one million tourists by 2017 and double that by 2020.
Even though the country still suffers from droughts, food shortages and intermittent electricity, it has embarked on a construction drive for leisure facilities in Pyongyang.
“I think that’s a quick way for North Korea to make quick money,” said Prof Cheng Xiaohe, an expert on North Korea at Renmin University of China. “North Korea faces severe international sanctions from United States, South Korea and Japan, and even partially from China. This country is in a desperate need of money, so developing tourism is a quick way for the country to make money.”
Observers say that while tourism figures will grow, it will not make the quantum leap that officials are hoping for.
“There are not many planes that fly there, there are not many trains, hotel capacity is not very high,” said Simon Cockerell, general manager of Koryo Tours. “The laws there requiring tourists to be accompanied by tour guides mean that the number of tourists is governed by the number of tour guides at the higher end, so you can’t have a thousand tour groups in a week because there aren’t 2,000 tour guides.”
But even though North Korea is highly isolated, Pyongyang residents Channel NewsAsia spoke to say they are happy for foreigners to visit.
“We hope more foreigners come here so they can understand the real situation in (North) Korea. So we are very welcoming to foreigners,” said one North Korean.
Though there has been much debate about the ethics of travelling to North Korea, supporters say foreign visitors can actually help to open up the isolated country.
- CNA/ec
