French, German and Mongolian added to meet growing diversity of international visitors
Korail is expanding its foreign-language service to 10 languages as the number of international passengers grows and their nationalities become more diverse.
Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail) announced Monday that it will expand the languages supported on its website and Korail+ app from seven to 10, effective Tuesday.
The expansion was driven by the need to make ticket booking more convenient for international travelers, in line with the rising number and diversity of foreign visitors.
The three newly added languages are French, German and Mongolian. They join the seven already available — English, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Thai — bringing the total to 10.
The additional languages were selected at a public-private tourism transport consultative meeting convened by the Korea Tourism Organization, which weighed factors including the number of visitors from each country and the length of their stays.
Users can access the foreign-language service by selecting their preferred language from the top right corner of the Korail multilingual website or the main screen of the Korail+ mobile app.
Meanwhile, the number of foreign rail passengers counted through September reached 7.78 million, up roughly 72 percent from the same period last year. If the current trend continues, the figure is expected to surpass 10 million by year's end — a record high.
Korail has been steadily improving the rail experience for international passengers, including extending the advance booking window last month from one month before departure to two months.
"We are expanding the languages we support so that foreign visitors to Korea can enjoy train travel without any language barriers," said Lee Min-seong, head of Korail's passenger business division. "Going forward, we will continue to build a more thoughtful rail service by diversifying overseas payment options and expanding globally tailored booking services."
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
