KORAIL website and app add French, German and Mongolian, bringing support to 10 foreign languages

[Financial News] Tourists from France, Germany and Mongolia can now book KTX tickets in their own languages.
According to KORAIL on the 2nd, the update was launched to make ticket reservations easier as the number of foreign tourists grows and their countries of origin become more diverse. The newly supported languages are French, German and Mongolian. Including the existing options—English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Japanese, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Thai—the service is now available in 10 foreign languages. The additional languages were selected after considering factors such as the number of visitors to Korea from each country and the length of their stays at a meeting of the Tourism and Transport Public-Private Consultative Council, convened by the Korea Tourism Organization.
Using the service is simple. Users can visit KORAIL’s multilingual website or select their preferred language in the upper-right corner of the KORAIL+ app’s home screen.
Use of rail services by foreign visitors is rising sharply. The 7.78 million foreign passengers in January–September this year already exceed last year’s full-year total of 6.06 million by more than 1.7 million. Compared with the 21.5% increase in inbound foreign tourists over the same period, rail use grew more than three times as fast. KORAIL has continued to improve convenience, including by moving up the start of the ticket-booking window for foreign visitors from one month before departure to two months ahead, a change made last month.
The government is also treating more convenient transportation for foreign visitors as a tourism policy priority. At the Third Tourism and Transport Policy Council meeting held that day, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport discussed ways to make rail and bus travel more convenient for foreign tourists as strategic priorities, alongside expanding open-loop payment systems and revitalizing regional airports.
Lee Min-sung, head of KORAIL’s Passenger Business Division, said, “We are expanding the languages we support so that foreign visitors to Korea can enjoy train travel without language barriers,” adding, “We will continue to provide attentive rail services, including by diversifying overseas payment options and expanding globally tailored booking services.”

[email protected] Jeong Gyeong-su Reporter