Korea Aims to Join Global Top 10 with 10 million Inbound Tourists
- The gov't introduces 18 tasks under a local tourism promotion plan

The government has an ambitious plan to attract 10 million foreign tourists and post $10 billion in tourism revenues by 2008 with the goal of joining the ranks of the global top 10 tourism countries.
Inbound foreign tourists are projected to rise to 6.1 million this year on the strength of Hallyu or Korean Cultural Wave raging in Asia said Kim Chan, director-general of the Tourism Bureau at the Ministry of Culture, and Tourism (MCT). Cashing in on the cultural fad, the ministry aims at attracting some 3 million Japanese tourists this year, he said. The following are the excerpts of an interview with MCT director-general Kim.
Question: Could you elaborate on the government's plans to promote the local tourism industry?
Answer: The Participatory Government has implemented 18 major tasks it selected under the five-year tourism promotion plan aimed at nurturing the tourism industry into one filled with tradition, culture, and local residents' life.
The mid-term tourism development plan envisions Korea with creative and attractive tourism resources. In this respect, the plan calls for developing the tourism industry into a fruitful one, coupled with balanced regional development with the goal of raising tourism to a sophisticated level of life and making Korea a magnet for foreign tourists.
The plan specifies policy details, including establishment of a public tourism infrastructure as an axis of development, nurturing balanced regional tourism based on local life and culture, and establishing Korea as a Northeast Asia hub of tourism by raising attractiveness and a competitive edge.
As part of its efforts to realize these policy directions, the government is trying to build institutional infrastructure like overhauling tourism-related taxes and facilitating investments, invigorate the domestic tourism industry, coupled with tourism facility build-up, and develop tourist products representing unique regional features and implement other diverse projects, including promotion activities for attracting foreign tourists, streamlining foreign tourists' entry procedures and strengthening inter-Korean tourism exchanges.
If these policies and projects are carried out as planned, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism predicts that Korea will join the ranks of global top 10 tourism countries by doubling people's tour frequency to 12 times, attracting up to 10 million foreign tourists and reaping $10 billion in tourism revenues by 2008.
Q: Could you tell to our readers your ministry's major tourism policies and priority projects?
A: The ministry plans to graft the Participatory Government's national administration philosophy and visions into the execution of tourism policies for this year.
MCT is working hard to make the local tourism industry garner greater momentum for the future. Upgrading, making tourism people's life itself, strengthened autonomy, and participation and raising the national profile to the world are among the major policy strategies the ministry employ this year.
Putting our goals into more specific terms, the ministry will push for a policy of "making tourism appealing to ourselves prior to trying to give foreigners the appeal." It will take steps to expand tourism infrastructure, including the one aimed at converting motels into low- and mid-priced lodging facilities and overhaul a tour guide system.
Secondly, we pursue a high-class level of tourism imbued with our life itself. We set our sights on making tourism one in which our life and culture can be livened up beyond the conception of environment-friendliness and sustainable development. In this respect, design, the closest factor to our daily life will be grafted into the tourism industry so that metropolises can be developed into agreeable and terrific tourist cities. The ministry will make efforts to increase tourism programs featuring high-class content, including culture, arts, the culture industry, and cultural properties.
Thirdly, the ministry will expedite autonomy and participation in drafting tourism policies and executing them. The central and provincial governments, civil and government sectors, and industry-government-campus partnership will be networked to stage the Civilian Tourism Movement (CTM).
Fourth, we will put energy into strengthening overseas publicity activities and raising Korea's national profile in the global tourism market. To this end, it will concentrate on boosting Hallyu, or Korean Cultural Wave spreading in Asia while beefing up tourism promotion activities of major markets, including the development of dining attractions aimed at alluring Chinese tourists and foreigners heading for China.
Programs, including a short-term study program at the World Trade Organization, will be expanded to nurture tourism experts.
Q: What's your forecast for inbound foreigners and outbound Koreans for 2005?
A: Provisional figures for last year show that inbound foreign tourists and outbound Korean tourists stood at 5.82 million and 8.8 million, recording a 22.1 percent surge and a 24.3 percent jump, respectively.
Inbound foreigners and outbound Korean tourists are projected to rise to 6.1 million and 9.86 million for this year, respectively. The ministry will come up with diverse steps to help Korean tourists divert their travel destinations to Korean tourist attractions and to attract more foreign tourists to Korea.
Q: What steps are in place to prop up the benefits of Hallyu?
A: Hallyu has become the most popular topic in the culture and tourism sector, and the craze for the Korea Cultural Wave and its effects are enormous and vary in types. The popularity and the demand for Korean cultural products, including the Korean drama hit "Winter Sonata," have surged in foreign markets, including Japan. The fad has escalated into the craze for learning Korea, the concern for Korean cuisine, and Japanese rushing to the shooting locations of the drama. As a result, the local tourism industry witnessed foreign tourists to Asia surge about 30 percent to 3.92 million during the first 11 months of last year over a year earlier. A degree of familiarity or hospitality between Japanese and Koreans has soared higher than any other time, so the "power of culture" has been felt more overwhelmingly than political, economic, and diplomatic circles have.
The government is preparing support measures, including the formation of a taskforce within the ministry, in a bid to spread Hallyu, while making strenuous efforts to sustain the popularity of Korean tourist attractions this year. An international seminar on Hallyu will be held with Hallyu experts and related people participating, while the government will seek to take steps to offer a wide range of support. The ministry will focus on developing Hallyu tourist products and pitching for them, while pushing projects, including the joint "Visit Korea-Japan" program as part of its efforts to make the most of Hallyu.
Q: Could you specify your ministry's overseas publicity activities on Korea's tourism market, conducted last year and your plans for this year?
A: Overseas marketing activities, included taking into consideration clients' needs and strategies of each market, including one aimed at capitalizing on Hallyu in Japan, paid off last year: attracting a record high of 5.82 million inbound tourists. In this respect, the ministry conducted a variety of marketing events related to Hallyu, including installing Hallyu stars as ambassadors for publicizing Korea's tourism and broadcasting commercials featuring Hallyu stars in Japan and China, and the development of Hallyu tourism products featuring the locations of "Winter Sonata" and other popular dramas. Korea also strengthened publicity activities aimed at raising Korea's brand name overseas by airing special features on Korea's tourism in such major media outlets as British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and PBS of the United States, during the 2004 Olympics in Athens and President Roh Moo-hyun's visits to Russia and South America.
During 2005, the ministry aims at attracting about 3 million Japanese tourists by promoting tourism related to Hallyu and implementing projects, including the joint "Visit Korea, Visit Japan" program. It also plans to strengthen activities aimed at attracting Chinese tourists and foreign tourists visiting China.
To this end, the government will pitch for Hallyu tourism by producing new Hallyu promotion commercials and developing new Hallyu contents, including dramas, films and animations. It will seek to open restaurants in exclusive use for Chinese and develop menus meeting the dietary needs of Chinese tourists.
The ministry will also beef up marketing activities designed to raise Korea's unified image based on tourism in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Q: What steps do you contemplate to promote the local convention industry?
A: The convention industry, a high added value industry, brings about not only the acquisition of the latest information and technology through conferences but also the development of relevant industries and such spillover effects of venues as job creation. Hosting international conferences successfully serves as an opportunity to enhance the brand of a nation and a venue city by introducing culture and tourism resources as well as strengthen diplomatic capabilities by playing leading roles in conferences. The convention industry has emerged as an essential means of regional globalization and ensuring balanced national development as the industry contributes to the development of the service industries, including transportation, hotel, food & beverages, and publications.
Given the significance of the convention industry, MCT has gone to great pains to lay a legal and institutional foundation for the efficient support and cultivation of the industry. The ministry has supported the construction of such convention facilities as COEX in Seoul, BEXCO in Busan, EXCO in Daegu, and ICC Jeju as well as the establishment of convention bureaus, specializing in attracting and organizing international conferences. During 2004, the ministry provided support in hosting such mega-events as the 53rd PATA Annual Meeting and the ADB Annual Meeting, while performing activities designed to attract international conventions by participating in overseas exhibitions. The ministry has undertaken programs to cultivate international convention experts, including the introduction of meeting planner (MP) certification in 2003.
The ministry plans to implement a wide range of comprehensive steps to foster the convention industry. As part of the plan, it will determine in the first half of the year a list of metropolises, to be developed as international convention cities, help national and local teams specialize in attracting international conventions conduct joint marketing activities, and promote information utilization through database build-up.
Q: What is the purpose of declaring "Visit Gyeonggi-Korea 2005" and could you introduce major the projects?
A: The government has carried out a regional tourism promotion project in cooperation with local governments in a bid to realize a goal of attracting a target of 10 million inbound tourists by diversifying their destinations, now concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area, to regional areas, correspond to the rising leisure demand in the wake of the expansion of the 40-hour per week working system and invigorate regional economies. Starting with Visit Gangwon 2004, the ministry has designated this year as Visit Gyeonggi-Korea 2005.
Setting its sights on raking in 3.5 trillion won in tourism revenues and attracting a target of 6.9 million tourists during the year, the Preparatory Office for Visit Gyeonggi-Korea 2005 plans to carry out diverse and unique projects - 31 projects in a total of five fields. The projects include 10 international festivals, to be held during the tourism promotion period, and organization of the second Gyeonggi Tour Exhibition, and the construction of the Goyang Tourism and Culture Complex.
In a ceremony marking the declaration of Visit Gyeonggi-Korea 2005, held on Jan. 11 in Suwon, Minister of Culture and Tourism Chung Dong-chea said, "The regional tourism project is a government program designed to overhaul conditions of the tourism industry, a milestone of the culture economy in the 21st century. It is noteworthy that Gyenggi Province has become the second to be designated under the project".
Gyeonggi Province is a land rich for tourism with attractions like Sowon Fortress, a jewel in history of global castle, prominent theme parks and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and Incheon International Airport, a Northeast hub port, and outside visitors are impressed with an aura of history and culture on the pristine environment of fertile land and climate, Minister Chung said.
He expressed the hope that Visit Gyeonggi-Korea 2005 would boost momentum for promoting the local tourism industry, now that Korea and Japan each promise to designate the year 2005 as Visit Korea-Japan 2005 on the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Korean-Japanese diplomatic ties, and the Hallyu syndrome culminates this year. nw