The Coree Group focuses on making foreign visitors feel welcome
- sunny@arirangtv.com (MAR/23/2001)


And in our cultural corner tonight... we highlight the activities of a local group aiming to make sure that foreign visitors thoroughly enjoy their stay in the nation. Min Sunhee has the story. Coree. That's the name of this group of volunteers who can be found every weekend in one of the capital's most popular tourist sites... Insa-dong. Their job? To provide international visitors with guidance around local areas... some on-site translation assistance... and a brief introduction to Korean culture. The best thing about the service is that it's all free of charge... and that the volunteers speak foreign languages including English... Japanese... French... among others. Majority of the volunteers in Coree are students... but businessmen and housewives are also said to take up quite a fair portion. Also among the participants are some foreign volunteers who joined the group after a taste of Coree's goodwill service. "One of the reason is because they're so nice and also it's very interesting. As for feedback from foreign travellers? "I think it's a great idea to have people like in this area where so many tourists come to visit. More often than not, you have a question and you're not sure where to go and seeing someone dressed like this makes them look more approachable and friendly and speaking English is going to make it easier for tourists coming from abroad." Coree's activities started last August... and now in just less than a year it has managed to draw some two-hundred volunteers. "As for future plans, organizers are working to expand the group's activities to cover other cities across the nation. Min Sunhee, Arirang T-V"