KTO partners with Catch Table in effort to demystify Korean menus

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) announced Thursday it signed a memorandum of understanding with Wad, operator of restaurant reservation service Catch Table, to help foreigners understand Korean menus easily.

Catch Table's English application will translate menus, restaurant descriptions and food descriptions based on the Standards for Translating Foods in Korea, a handbook of official food translations published by the KTO. The company introduced an English version of its Catch Table application in September and will be refining the translations.

KTO will promote Catch Table's English application through its social media channels. The organization will also create new tour programs for foreigners related to Korean food, using data provided by Catch Table to see what types of food are popular.

KTO and Catch Table plan to focus on helping foreigners try various Korean food as international travel recovers. According to the KTO, there were 14.6 million foreigners who visited Korea between January and October, up 33.1 percent on year.

"We launched an English version of the Catch Table application after noticing that there was a growing number of inquiries from foreigners early this year, wanting to make a restaurant reservation for their trips to Korea," said Yong Tae-soon, CEO of Wad, in a statement. "Catch Table offers reservation and wait list registration services for many popular restaurants, and we plan to continue to become a leading player in the same market for foreign users."

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]