The prolonged situation of COVID-19 makes it seem that travelling overseas freely isn’t something we can expect soon. But we can at least hope and make plans for when the day does come, especially now that
the global vaccination rate is going up. One of the prospective popular travel destinations is South Korea,
which reached its peak number of inbound tourists in 2019 just before the pandemic struck.
A lot of people who have ever been to South Korea will know that it has one of the best public transportation in the world, like
the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. Visiting other popular cities outside the capital like Jeonju or Busan isn’t that much of a difficulty either, thanks to express buses and KTX, the high-speed train. Once you get there, the subway or the town buses would be enough to get you to most of the places you want to visit as well. But what isn’t as known as much is South Korea is a pretty good country for driving as well. Rental cars are available for traveling in and to rural places where public transports aren’t around as much. Since Korea has systematic national highways and city roads, you will be able to enjoy more freedom in your itinerary by taking control of your trip.
Then, you might think, that travelling in Korea should be pretty easy. Well, actually, the answer depends. If you had relied heavily on Google Maps in your daily life and for getting around in your previous travels, you would naturally use it in Korea as well. But soon enough you’ll notice a few strange things. When you want to go to a nice coffee shop nearby after you enjoyed your meal, you would find out that it is impossible to get walking directions on the app. If you rented a car during your trip in the beautiful Jeju Island and are now ready to hit the road, you would then realize that getting GPS navigation and real time traffic information isn’t available. Irritated and confused, you would look for other options. After all the hassle of what alternative apps are used most in the country and downloading them, you’d find that they do offer English service, but they aren’t as convenient and helpful compared to just using Google Maps.
So why is it that the essential, go-to app for travelling worldwide not able to offer the same useful features in South Korea?
Simply put, Google does not have direct access to Korea’s map data. Because of
South Korea’s special situation of being a divided country and still technically at war with North Korea, South Korea’s government regulates exporting the nation’s geospatial data outside the country for security reasons.
Google had made several attempts to take out Korea’s geospatial data, first in 2007 and most recently in 2016.
The Korean government made a final statement in November 2016 that Google’s request for full open access to Korea’s map data was denied. It was explained that Google refused the government’s offer that they reduce the map resolutions for sensitive locations, and they could not reach an agreement. Hence Google Maps in South Korea has lower quality and is unable to offer its best.
Since then, Google launched
its first Google Cloud Platform region in Seoul in 2020. Some view this as a sign or hope for Google to improve their map services in Korea, since it means they can now collect local data on their own. Nothing is certain yet, but if Google does decide to get serious about renewing or upgrading map services in South Korea, let’s hope they get better map data and traffic information, so they could be fully useful in South Korea like they are in the rest of the world. If it happens, it would greatly enhance mobility for Korea’s international tourists and residents and make some major shifts in Korea’s map industry.
