S Korea goes all out to woo Thai tourists
The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) hopes to attract 16 million tourists, including 500,000 from Thailand, in 2016 thanks to a three-year national campaign designed to restore tourism following the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) crisis.
Jaesung Rhee, executive vice president of International Tourism at KTO said its new global campaign, Visit Korea 2016-2018, would replace the current campaign, "Imagine Your Korea" at the end of the year.
KTO initiated the Imagine Your Korea campaign last year to promote Korea’s culture, food, health tourism, sports, and Korean waves such as K Pop and Korean drama.
The new campaign is aimed at rebuilding tourism and also paving way for its hosting of the Olympic Games in 2018.
"Due to the occurrence of the MERS epidemic in the middle of this year, we have experienced a huge drop in international arrivals between 30-60 per cent per month. However, we expect total arrivals for the entire year to drop by 10 per cent from a projection of 16 million," said Rhee.
Last year, South Korea welcomed 14 million visitors. Top markets were China, Japan, the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines.
The tourism sector contributes 6-7 per cent of South Korea’s GDP.
According to Rhee, the agency has revised up its tourism target to 16 million for 2016.
Of the projected number, it expects to receive more than 500,000 Thai tourists, up from 480,000 last year.
"In order to attract more Thai people, in this current context, we need to beat Japan to become the number one tourist destination for Thais. We are planning to work with airlines and local travel agents to create attractive packages specifically to the Thai market," he added.
Several key regional strategies have been drafted, such as promoting winter holidays at snow-covered locations and increasing South Korea’s image as a reasonably priced destination. For people of Southeast Asia, travelling to South Korea is 30-40 per cent cheaper than going to Europe. The increase in the number of low-cost airlines from Southeast Asia to South Korea is also expected to lure more visitors.
KTO is considering continuing the visa fee exemption measure it implemented following the MERS crisis until end of this year.
Rhee said South Korea would also focus more on Muslim markets, particularly Indonesia and the Middle East, besides India and the Philippines.
Currently, KTO has 31 offices around the world, including one in Thailand. Last year, more than 16 million Koreans travelled overseas.
