Korea Eyes Tourism Powerhouse
The government envisions a scheme to attract 10 million foreign tourists and post $10 billion in tourism revenue by 2010, sharply up from 5.82 million foreigners and $5.7 billion, respectively.
Inbound foreign tourists are projected to rise to 6.1 million this year up from last year's 5.82 million on the strength of Hallyu or Korean Cultural Wave raging in Asia, Kim Chan, director-general of the Tourism Bureau at MCT, told NewsWorld early this year.
The government has implemented 18 major tasks it selected under the five-year tourism promotion plan aimed at nurturing the tourism industry into an added value one filled with tradition, culture and residents' life.
The mid-term tourism development plan calls for the development of 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 enhancing tourism as an equivalent of a high standard of living and making Korea a magnet for foreign tourists.
The plan specifies policy details, including setting the establishment of the public tourism infrastructure as an axis of development, developing regional life and culture, and establishing Korea as a Northeast hub of tourism through enhancing attraction and an competitive edge.
As part of its efforts to realize these policy directions, the government is trying to expand tourist accommodation facilities while beefing up Korea' competitive edge in global markets. It will also concentrate on developing Korea's representative tourist products, nurturing the convention industry, a value-added industrial sector, and dramatically raising the number of foreigners making tours related to the Korean Wave.
Under its 2005 business plan, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is seeking to establish low- and mid-priced hotel chains with the target of expanding 2,000 rooms, while creating 68 places where visitors get a glimpse of traditional Korean culture in old palaces, houses and temples. The government has launched projects to build tourism-leisure cities in such areas as the Southeast Coast. It plans to strengthen its bid to attract more international conventions into Korea, while making efforts to capitalize on the Korean Wave. To this end, the government plans to simplify entry procedures for Chinese tourists with a target of raising the number of Chinese tourists from 620,000 last year to 1 million this year. The ministry is putting more energy into developing tourist products tailored to Japanese tastes related to the Korean Wave with a target of raising the number of Japanese tourists from 2.44 million in 2004 to about 3 million this year.
The ministry has drafted the Participatory Government's state administration philosophy and visions into the execution of tourism policies for this year.
MCT is working hard to make the local tourism industry get new momentum for the future. Upgrading, improving Koreans' local tours, strengthened autonomy and participation and raising the national profile to the world are among the major strategies being employed this year.
Putting into more specific terms, firstly, the ministry tries to push for a policy of having us appealing to ourselves. 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 guidance system the way we would like to make a trip, stay or live in Korea.
Secondly, the ministry has set our sights on elevating tourism to a level in which our life and culture can liven up beyond being environmentally-friendly and sustainable development. In this respect, design, the closest factor to our daily life, will be drafted 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 contents, 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).
Fourthly, the ministry will try to put a lot of 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 or foreigners heading for China. nw