A Hot Plan for
Foreign Tourists

Seoul Mayor Oh launches ambitious plan to lure 12 mln foreign tourists by 2010

Seoul City will set up the Seoul Tourism Marketing Promotion Headquarters within the Seoul Industrial Commerce Promotion Institute in December or early next year.
The new tourism marketing unit is part of the city's plan to attract 6.75 million foreign tourists next year, up some 600,000 tourists from this year. The figure breaks down to 480,000 to be attracted by the private sector and the rest by the city through its own tourism promotion programs.
The new tourism organization will have tourism planning team, and teams for China, Japan, Europe, Americas and conventions with the headquarters and five teams. Within the year, some 24 professional marketing staff proficient in foreign languages will be hired and the number of staff will be expanded step-by-step as the need arises as the year wears on. They will be assigned to major foreign countries to attract tourists to Seoul such as China and Japan through various regional strategies tailored to specific regions. They will take on core roles in these efforts.
First. China will be one of the core countries next year, designated as the Year of Tourism Exchange with Korea with the Beijing Olympics due to start in 2008. Most of the tourism promotion programs with many incentives will be focused on coastal cities in China, especially in southern and eastern regions. Five large cities in China and Taipei in Taiwan will be the focus of intensive tourism marketing by Seoul City with such programs as the invitation to major journalists, travel agencies, and related firms and hold promotional events to the general public in those cities including exhibitions, cultural performances, and road shows, among others, designed to invite them to visit Seoul. Beijing, Shanghai, Gwangzou, Qingdao and Senyang will be the five largest cities in China where Seoul City plan to focus its tourism promotion programs to attract Chinese tourists.
In addition, executives of multinational companies, conglomerates, public servants of sister-cities and school travels will be invited to tour industrial facilities in Korea as part of the incentive-loaded tourism programs. The tourism promotion team will also help develop tourism products related to the Beijing Olympics and draw up tourism campaign plans.
In Japan, the tourism programs will be detailed to suit all bracket of tourists in Japan including quality tourism products and conduct tourism promotion programs in cooperation with private tourism agencies, with special targets on female tourists, school tours and private groups.
The tourism marketing team would lend its hands to make public relations material for media, travel agencies, public relations agencies, and related companies to promote such mega events as Osaka Tour Expo, Tokyo JATA Expo and other travel related expos in Japan in a bid to increase the number of visitors to those events. The team will also draw up package tour incentive programs for multinational companies, large business firms, public organizations, schools, educational organizations, private hobby clubs and social organizations.
During festivals on Daehangro Street in Seoul in September, the marketing team will add various "Korean Wave"performances to the schedule for foreign tourists to enjoy and learn more about Korea. All tourism marketing programs by country and region will be directed to create synergy with each other to maximize their effects and results.
Hi, Seoul Festival, the most representative festival for Seoul, the International Women's Beach Volleyball World Tour, and fashion shows featuring "Korean Wave"stars will be made into tourism products to attract tourists.
Seoul's landmark tourism sites such as Cheonggyecheon Stream, the Han River, Mt. Nam, and Insa-dong Alley will be included in the Seoul tour program, along with Coex and Kintex convention facilities in a bid to bring large conventioneers. Efforts will also be made to attract short-term tourists taking advantage of stop-overs in airlines flight schedules.
The tourism promotion headquarters will set targets by nation, sector, and quantity for regularized management of those targets. It is also considering the assignment of the Seoul Municipal Policy Institute to make a study of the organization of the Seoul Tourism Corp. to be set up next year for effective management of the tourism promotion sector. The new entity could take form of local public corporation, corporation, or foundation, among others, that are under study. By March next year, the organization form will be decided by the city and by the end of the first half, all kinds of preparatory work including the selection of staff and regulations will be established in consultation with related organizations for its official launch in August as an appropriate tourism marketing entity.
The tourism marketing headquarters will be made part of the new organization to ensure continuity of the nature of its business by the new entity.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon began his term of office in July and he has been making quite an effort to make the nation's capital as one that can stand out among capitals in the world, like Paris,

London and Tokyo to make the city's 10 million population be proud of their city.
At only 45 this year, Oh became the youngest mayor in the capital's history, winning the mayoral election by creating "Oh Wind."None of his rivals could quite down the wind, that swept the new mayor into the office.
During the inaugural ceremony, Mayor Oh said he wants to make Seoul like New York, full of economic activity, Paris with lots of culture, London with dignity, Milan, a fashion capital, and Sydney with a famous landmark, so that Seoul would have its own special brand to stand on its own to compete with rival capitals on the world stage. He said if Seoul becomes a strong competitive city, the country's competitive strength will grow strong because Seoul has such a large influence over the entire country. When the quality of life for Seoul citizens improves, so would those of the entire country, he added.
The mayor, however, noted that the capital is No.1 in the world in e-administration, but lags behind others in terms of administrative service quality on C level, so are its competitiveness and the quality of life ranked in the middle of all OECD countries.
He said he would like to make Seoul clean and attractive to ultimately to improve the happiness index of citizens and the quality of life, boosting its global competitive quality.
In order to achieve what he aims at as the mayor, he said the city would have to change its working style that can only come from a dynamic organization, always reflecting the refreshing ideas and thoughts of Seoul citizens given voluntarily. The Seoul Metropolitan Government will always make its management centered on citizen customers with administration service that move them, not just satisfactory.
He said he will freshen up the minds of staff of the city and set up the "100-Day Initiative Seoul Promotion Headquarters"as part of the effort to push reform of the metropolitan administration quietly.
His promise to make Seoul a cultural city means that its cultural assets would boost the city's brand value, creating economic added value and graft it with municipal policies.
He said the face of northern Seoul will be changed through urban development plans which will focus on the renovation of streets leading to Insa-dong from Myeongdong, the central commercial district in Seoul, those linking Gwangwha-mun and Namdae-mun(South Gate), among others. The refurbishing projects would facelift the city and step up the development of clothing fashion industries centered around South and East Gate districts creating world brands to double their sales and movie, image and animation industries based on Chungmu-ro will be an industry representing Seoul. The renovated Seoul will be good enough to attract 12 million foreign tourists a year, doubling the current number as a global metropolis.
Mayor Oh also promised that Seoul will be a green town, a first-class environment city in the world with 1 million pyeong of green land for parks to be created. He said he called for three years of extension in lives for all Seoul citizens during the mayoral campaign by making Seoul's air cleaner by eliminating fine dusts in the air, which is the worst among the OECD countries. He said 76 percent of fine dusts are caused by emissions from cars, especially those using diesel. He will make all diesel burning cars to install facilities to reduce fine dusts and see that car owners to drive non-diesel cars and upgrade the service of public transportation system so that people would use buses rather than driving their own cars to move around.
The mayor also said the Han River is bigger and cleaner than the Seine river in Paris and Thames River in London, pledging that green and cultural spaces along the river will be expanded to help citizens to use them as a resting and leisure spaces to recharge their tired bodies and minds.
Korea's economic take-off has often been called, the "Han River Miracle"and the river will be reborn as a stylish cultural space that the world would envy under the new mayor's run, Oh predicted.
The Seoul mayor said he will focus on making the city full of cultural assets because they can make Seoul highly competitive helping the tourism industry to create jobs. When his cultural plan for the city is completed, the number of foreign tourists in the city will double from the current number to 12 million in 2010. He will also push the development of the digital contents, information/communication, bio, nano, finance, fashion and service businesses as the city's master plan for the development of its strategic industries.
He also thought that the environment to allow citizens to take public transit system, instead of driving their own cars to move around the city was important. He thought that the best way to go about it is to improve the transfer systems at the city's boundaries with its satellite cities such as Uijeongbu, and Bundang so that people would not have to drive to move into the center of Seoul. He will also look into the call taxi system for citizens to move around in the downtown area in taxi cabs, not in their own cars and to improve the business for the city's taxi cab industry.
The city will also free the taxi fees leaving it to the market, not regulated by the city. The city will also encourage large firms to give its executives taxi coupons, instead of chauffeured cars, so that they can use call taxis for travels around the city.
The mayor is inclined to believe that the projects that the city has been undertaking have a lot to do with attracting foreign investment for business firms in Seoul. The city, among others, plans to clean the air, and improve the transit system because many foreign business people complain the air pollution and the heavy traffic conditions in Seoul, more than anything else. They also pointed out the lack of a adequate schools for their kids, residential housing, and medical care. He also thinks that the redevelopment of northern Seoul would also help promote foreign investment as foreign businesses would set up companies in the area, attracted by the fresh changes. nw

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon delivers a speech at the Seoul Cultural Forum.

(clockwise) A public relations event for Seoul City held at the Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall. Seoul Mayor Oh at the IT Art Fair for the Handicapped organized by Seoul City; A festive event in front of City Hall to display what the city has to offer to tourists: A night scene of the famous Seoul landmark Cheonggyecheon Stream.