[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 28th that it will hold the ‘2021 Korea Tourism Expo’ from June 29 to July 13 at the Paradise Hotel in Incheon and on the official website, in collaboration with the Korea Tourism Organization and Incheon Tourism Organization.
This expo will be the first to integrate the previously separate expos held in four sectors (MICE, Korea Travel, Luxury, and Medical Wellness Tourism) and operate them sequentially. This is to support the early market development of the tourism industry, which has been contracted due to COVID-19, and to proactively secure inbound tourism demand. Since domestic sellers find it difficult to meet overseas buyers face-to-face due to COVID-19, the expo plans to promote tourism products through various online real-time consultations with buyers. It is expected that providing diverse Korean tourism content information to overseas buyers will increase future demand for Korean tourism products.
To this end, a variety of events will be held, crossing online and physical spaces, including ▲video consultation meetings between domestic and international tourism companies and organizations ▲online exhibitions ▲international conferences ▲Korea travel online promotional tours (fam tours) ▲online tourism product sales exhibitions.
At the opening ceremony on the 29th, Chang Chee Pey, Deputy Director of the Singapore Tourism Board, and Joanna Lumley, a British actress and travel program host, will appear as holograms from Singapore and the UK respectively, sharing their views in real time on strategies for resuming international tourism after COVID-19.
Additionally, the expo’s official website will provide an online business consultation window where about 1,000 domestic companies including travel agencies, airlines, and medical institutions, and approximately 2,000 buyers from about 40 countries overseas will conduct consultations. An online tourism content exhibition hall will also be operated until July 30.
Furthermore, thematic international conferences will be held sequentially to prepare for the future of the tourism industry after COVID-19, covering topics such as advanced conference technology utilization, trends in the resumption of international tourism, future prospects of luxury tourism, and global promotion trends of medical healing (wellness) tourism.
In particular, this expo will feature various unique online participation events that will attract the attention of overseas buyers and tourists.
At the MICE Expo, an ‘Overseas MICE Road Show’ will be held, conducting on-site consultations between local buyers in five overseas regions (Shenyang in China, Bangkok in Thailand, Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, etc.) and the domestic tourism industry.
At the Korea Travel Expo, the 2020 overseas cultural ambassadors ATEEZ will host a live broadcast of the ‘Korea Travel Online Travel Story Show.’ Through promotion and sales of ‘Korean Tourism Online Products,’ Korea will be promoted as a ‘safe travel destination.’ Also, in the ‘Korea Travel Product Hall’ on the official website, tourism products and airline tickets will be pre-sold, and an ‘Online Promotional Tour for Tourism Products’ will be conducted targeting overseas travel agents.
At the Luxury Tourism Expo, a ‘Luxury Tourism Online Promotional Tour’ will be conducted both online and offline from ‘Korea’s House,’ a representative luxury tourism destination, and broadcast live.
At the Medical Healing (Wellness) Tourism Expo, ‘meditation and yoga lectures and experience events’ will be provided online to overseas buyers to heal the body and mind of tourists exhausted by COVID-19. In addition, to secure demand for inbound medical tourism, online medical consultations will be held between medical tourists in Russia and Mongolia and domestic hosting institutions.
More detailed information including the main schedule of this expo can be found on the official website.
Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee stated, “The Korea Tourism Expo will not only widely promote the diverse charms of Korean tourism domestically and internationally but also serve as a signal for the restart of the tourism industry through early sales of tourism products. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will continue to work closely with related organizations so that Korea can lead the international tourism market in line with the changed tourism demand due to COVID-19, following recent initiatives such as the promotion of ‘travel safe zones (travel bubbles)’ with countries trusted for quarantine and the extension of the ‘Korea-Spain Mutual Visit Year.’”
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