Busan City Distributes Smart Foreign Language Menus Using QR Codes

Distribution of Smart Foreign Language Menus at 50 Major Tourist Area Restaurants

Smart Foreign Language Menu Draft.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Busan City has distributed smart foreign language menus using QR codes to 50 major tourist area restaurants within the city.

The "Smart Foreign Language Menu Distribution Project" is a project aimed at standardizing foreign language notations such as menus and price tags in major tourist areas of Busan and promoting convenience for foreign tourists using restaurants by utilizing QR codes. It is part of the International Tourism City Project, a public contest project by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Busan selected in 2020, with a project budget of 139.1 billion KRW over five years), and has been promoted together with the Busan Tourism Association since 2022.

The smart foreign language menu allows customers to scan a QR code to have the restaurant's menu translated into five languages (Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish), and is designed so that customers can view photos of the menu items on their mobile devices.

Additionally, restaurants with distributed foreign language menus are supported to enable online reservation, ordering, and payment, and discount promotions are also offered during online payments, which is expected to contribute to increasing restaurant sales.

A Busan City official stated, "Through this project, foreign tourists will be able to use restaurants more conveniently, further solidifying Busan's status as a global tourist city," and added, "We plan to continuously promote the smart foreign language menu distribution project in 2023 as well."

Following the endemic phase of COVID-19, with the resumption of visa-free entry from countries such as Japan and Taiwan and the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in China, the foreign entry environment has improved. In preparation for a significant increase in foreign tourists, Busan City has been continuously promoting improvements in tourism accommodation systems, including the smart foreign language menu project.