For Hosting
Mega Int'l Events

Korea Tourism Organization extends hands to help bring huge sports events to Korea

Korea Tourism Organization(KTO) has been sparing no efforts to help Korean candidate cities to win the rights to stage a number of mega international sports events in the country this year, including the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu, the 2014 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games, the 2012 Yeosu World Expo and the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.
The world authorities of those global events will make decisions on which cities will hold the events this year and the Korean bid committees for the candidate cities in the country have been working hard to clinch the rights to bring those huge global events to their cities.
KTO has been providing its know-how on attracting international events to Korea to the bid committees of those mega sports events and the world expo, utilizing the 27 overseas branches to publicize the advantages of having Korean cities as host cities for those events.
The government-run tourism organization has been disseminating information on Korean tourism through exhibitions and expos it holds annually overseas, along with public relations with local journalism communities. KTO has also been engaged in the work to send E-newsletters to boost the intensity of the campaigns to win the rights to host those events in the respective candidate cities in Korea.
KTO feels that Korea would be able to boost its image to some 6 billion people in the world including 4 billion in Asia to help the country to become a world-renowned travel destination.
The International Olympic Committee will meet in Guatemala July 4 to decide on which candidate cities will get the right to hold the 2014 Winter Olympics. Pyeongchang is in competition with Sochi, Russia, and Salzburg, Austria.
Pyeongchang is considered a favorite because it has the support of 91.6 percent of the people around the country, according to the poll taken by the Korean Information Agency.
The decision on the right to host the IAAF World Championships will be made on March 27 when the IAAF's board of directors meet in Mumbassa, Kenya. Daegu and Brisbane, Australia, are favored to get the nod because Berlin, Germany, will stage the largest global track and field event in 2009 and one of the three mega global sports event along with the Olympics and the World Cup. The IAAF event has been held alternatively in Europe and Asia every other year and the IAAF will decide on the hosting rights for 2011 and 2013 at the upcoming meeting in Kenya. Daegu and Brisbane are likely to have a close competition, but Daegu is considered a slight favorite because it has the experience of having hosted the 2003 Summer Universiad successfully at the World Cup Stadium in the city and over 90 percent of its residents support the effort to bring the mega sports event to their city. Other contending cities include Barcelona, Spain and Moscow, Russia.
Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, will know the results of its bid effort for the 2012 World Expo in December, when the International Exposition Organization holds its general conference. The Korean city is in competition with Tangier in Morocco, which is favored by the EU member countries and a city in Poland, favored by the Islam and African countries.
To be ready for the visit to Yeosu by BIE inspection team on April 9-13, the city launched a campaign to get 1 million signatures of the people who support the campaign, along with the cooperation of 2 million residents of South Jeolla Province and 300,000 residents of Yeosu.
Incheon, the port city located near Seoul, is all out to get the nod to host the 2014 Asian Games in competition with New Delhi. The Olympic Council of Asia will hold its annual general conference in April and 45 member countries will vote on which city is to hold the biggest sports event in Asia. Incheon is counting on its super sports facilities and the information technology on hand.
The city's IT level is likely to be a big advantage for the candidature. Foreign visitors will be able to relay the sports events through handsets using mobile services on real time. It is not easy for any city that want to stage major sports events like the Asia Games because the construction of infrastructure take a lot of money.
OCA officials who visited the city in November last year, said Incheon has to build all of the sports facilities, but New Delhi only has to remodel what it has already. nw

KTO President Kim Jong-min