'Happy New Year' for Tourism Industry
- Culture-Tourism Minister Chung promises official help to the industry at gathering

The Korea Tourism Association held its New Year meeting for its members on Jan.6 at Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul with some 1,000 people attending including Culture-Tourism Minister Chung Dong-chea, foreign ambassadors and representatives of tourism organizations.
Chung Woon-shik, chairman of the association, in his opening speech, welcomed the crowd to the new year and said he hopes the tourism industry would have a terrific year this year as last year. Korean wave and the five-day work week helped both in and outbound tourism traffic last year.
The government has been extending help to the industry with its five-year tourism support plan and Culture-Tourism Minister Chung also did not hesitate to extend his support to the industry by holding a breakfast meeting with representatives of the industry to listen to their problems and ideas for further developing the industry.
He said he has high hopes for the industry this year being the 40th anniversary year for the resumption of the diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan and Korea-Japan Friendship Year. President Roh and Prime Minister Koizumi had their summit in Japan on Dec.17 last year during which they agreed to boost the number of annual tourists between the two countries to 5 million a year and take various follow-up measures including the exemption of visas to Koreans visiting Japan.
The Korea National Tourism Organization(KNTO) targets to attract 6 million foreign tourists to Korea this year and 7 million if going gets good.
He said we have already been the beneficiaries of 2.3 trillion won worth of economic effects generated by the Korean waves in Southeast Asia, particularly in Japan and thus need to build more hotels and other accommodation facilities.
Culture-Tourism Minister Chung thanked the crowd for doing their best to make last year a successful year for tourism with 5.7 million foreign tourists visiting the country despite all the problems including high oil prices, the Iraq war and Indonesia earthquake and tsunamis most recently. He would like to thank every one in the tourism industry for their contributions for the growth of the industry last year. He said he has high hopes for the tourism industry this year because, for one thing, the 40-hour work week will be expanded to large workplaces from July which will help tourism a great deal. This means that tourism will be part of daily life for the general public, playing a major role in the national economy. Korea is rapidly becoming a mass consumption society and tourism will be an integral part of national life in the country.
He said President Roh Moo-hyun remarked that culture and tourism now would have to lead our economy at a recent meeting. He said he feels a heavy responsibility as the President told him on several occasions that the Culture-Tourism Ministry should do its roles and duty to the fullest extend possible.
The ministry plans to promote the construction of a number of tourism-leisure cities in the country and expand the number modest-priced tourism accommodation facilities. The ministry will also see that more Japanese and Chinese tourists are invited to visit Korea as Japan and China have become a main source of tourists to Korea. He said he will try to improve domestic regulations for the tourism industry so that the industry would have a very good year.
The ministry will make sure that this year will be the opening year for the age of cultural tourism and tourism advanced Korea, truly a memorable year for every one concerned with tourism.
He said he hopes that all of you in the industry would rejoice over this year's tourism achievement with big smiles at the end of this year, thanking every one at the new year's party for coming, especially the Korea Tourism Association for hosting the event. He said he hopes to meet again at the end of this year and reminisce about the industryOs tourism record and chart the new courses to further develop it. nw