Welcome to our new website and our first ever blog post. My name is Albert Kim and I am the COO/VP of This is Korea! I have worked at This is KOREA! since January, 2014. It seems like my first day was just yesterday. I can’t believe it has been nearly 3.5 years. Enough about me for now. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our company and what we are all about.
This is KOREA! was founded by our owner, BB, in 2013. He set out to provide travelers to Korea with a unique and fulfilling touring experience. Up to that point, most tours in Korea were of the group tour variety. These group tours were, and still very much are, very impersonal and just not very fun. Worst of all, these tours were littered with unnecessary stops as ginseng, seaweed, and amethyst shops. During these stops, the tour guides are under pressure by the agency to sell as much of the overpriced, low quality products to the travelers as possible.
BB actually had worked as a photographer for one of these group tour agencies. Like the tour guides, he was under pressure to upsell as many photos to travelers as he could. BB had a passion for taking photos and meeting new people, but hated the fact that he had to try and convince travelers to buy photos. He felt there had to be a better way.
That is when he came up with the idea of providing freestyle, private tours in Korea. He wanted to give travelers the freedom to go where they want, when they want, and at the pace they want with no preset itineraries. More importantly, he wanted to provide tours with absolutely no compulsory shopping and meals at tourist trap restaurants. As an added bonus, he wanted to provide high quality photos at no extra cost. There was nobody else offering what he envisioned at that time so he decided to go for it. As the saying goes, the rest was history.
BB started a new trend with This is KOREA!, but more importantly, we continue to lead the trend. There have been many copycat agencies following the path that we started, but we have remained #1 in customer satisfaction on Tripadvisor for over 3 years now. Many of the other agencies were started by former employees who saw an opportunity to capitalize on the trend we started in order to make a few bucks. We don’t blame them and wish them the best. You can copy a formula, but you can’t copy heart. BB’s motivation for starting this journey was not about profit. His motivation was to introduce the world to the country he loves without compromising on quality and doing so as a friend, not just a mere guide. This is at the heart of who BB, and everyone who works at This is KOREA! is.
Whether it is a one day tour in Seoul, or a multi day tour across the country, This is KOREA! is truly the best option for a private tour in Korea.
Thank you for taking time to read our first blog post. This was just an intro of who we are and I promise that our future posts will be more interesting in terms of content.
