Korea Tourism Organization Hosts Familiarization Event for Travel Industry Representatives from the Americas and Oceania

The Korea Tourism Organization announced on May 19 that, in cooperation with the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization, it hosted a familiarization event for key travel industry representatives from emerging inbound markets from May 9 to 16.

This invitation event brought 19 travel industry professionals from eight countries to Korea, including the United States and Canada, as well as the rapidly growing markets of the Netherlands, Italy, and New Zealand. In particular, the United States and Canada are regions expected to see further growth, spurred by Delta Air Lines' new Salt Lake City-Incheon route and T'way Air's new Vancouver-Incheon route.

Participants toured major tourist attractions in Seoul and experienced a variety of unique Korean offerings popular among travelers from the Americas and Oceania. These included a Buddhist culture experience with a tea ceremony with monks at Hwagyesa Temple, a tour of the DMZ Forest and Camp Greaves to learn about Korea's natural environment and history of peace, and hands-on Korean cuisine activities such as making Makgeolli and fried chicken. Based on this itinerary, the familiarization tour group plans to jointly develop and promote travel products targeting consumers in these emerging markets who are less familiar with travel to Korea.

Korea Tourism Organization B2B Travel Mart Event
Photo by Korea Tourism Organization

On May 15, a B2B Travel Mart was held to facilitate exchanges with the domestic travel industry. The event was attended by more than 80 participants from 26 organizations, including inbound travel agencies and local governments, as well as representatives from emerging market travel companies. A total of 171 business consultations took place.

Kim Jonghun, Acting Head of the International Tourism Division at the Korea Tourism Organization, stated, "The number of tourists from the eight emerging markets in the Americas and Oceania visiting Korea surpassed 380,000 by March this year, an increase of 13% compared to the previous year. The organization will continue to focus on these emerging markets to generate new demand for travel to Korea."

Since last year, the Korea Tourism Organization has established Korea tourism promotion offices in 10 countries with high inbound potential, such as Sweden and Brazil, to pioneer new inbound markets. As a result, the number of tourists from these 10 countries increased by more than 20% year-on-year, demonstrating significant progress in diversifying inbound markets. Building on this, the organization is expanding the number of promotion offices from 10 to 12 this year to further strengthen its efforts in targeting emerging markets.