Recognition and Preference to Korean Traditional Food of Foreign Visitors in Korea

To investigate the perception and preference of foreign visitors to Korean traditional foods, 206 visitors(male 142, female 61) were surveyed with questionnaires translating in English, Chinese and Japanese. Subjects had various nationality such as China(77.4%), America(20.9%), Japan(16.0%), Canada(6.5%), Southeast Asia(2.5%) and Europe(2.5%). The 70.2% of the respondents had been tried Korean dishes before visiting Korea on the recommendation of friends or acquaintances(59.9%) or by the advertisement, articles, and travel agency. Bulgogi and Kimchi were the most popular menu that they had been tried in their country and Bibimbop, Kalbi, Korean dumpling, Samgaetang and Chapchae were following. 29.8% of the respondents had never tried Korean dishes because of they didn't have a chance to try(43.1%) or there were no Korean restaurant near their place(25.5%) or they had no interest in Korean dishes(23.5%). As expected, Kimchi and Bulgogi were well known food, showing rank of highest recognition. Chun and Dduck were the dishes that they had heard or saw but not eaten and Goojeolpan and Shinsunro were the dishes that they had not heard or saw. Preference to Korean dishes shows the same tendency as perception, Bulgogi, Bibimbop, Kalbi and Kimchi were the highly preferred group and Samgaetang, Bindaedduck, Chapchae, Dumpling and Raengmyon were mildly preferred one and Cucumber Kimchi, Kalbitang, Chun, Namul, Dduck were lower group of preference and Shinsunro and Goojeolpan were rarely preferred. These result shows that it is needed to advertise Korean dishes and to make events for globalization of Korean food.