There’s been a bit of online reaction to Lonely Planet’s publishing of a blog-reader list of “Most hated cities”, and the fact that Seoul featured at number three.
Lonely Planet have updated the post in an attempt to clarify that it’s reader comments, not editorial opinion. That probably won’t stop people from being outraged anyway, but those people should bear in mind that linking to the post that offended them is not helping Korean tourism’s cause. It’s just going to boost the Google ranking of Lonely Planet’s article.
So if you genuinely want to do something to improve Seoul’s standing, don’t mention the LP post. Just fight it with Google, by posting something of your own that state your view on why Seoul is a good place to visit, laden with keywords that are relevant. This post is an example, and I’ll follow up with “Why Seoul shouldn’t be on a list of Cities You Really Hate’”. This is the world of the web . A hundred positive reviews trump one good one. But even one good one trumps a bad one if it’s higher in search engine results.
I’d recommend you have a go.
Authors bio is coming up shortly.