Korea Travel Conference To
Be Held in Cheongju March 26-27

Annual conference to offer diverse discussions on travel issues and networking opportunities for travel businesspeople
     
The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and the Chungcheongbuk-do provincial government will jointly host the Korea Travel Conference 2008 at the Ramada Plaza Cheongju Hotel in Cheongju on March 26-27 under the theme, "Tourism Today and Tomorrow."The Korea Travel Conference 2008, celebrating its fourth year, is designed to discuss pending issues and development options of the tourism industry and invigorate each region's tourism industry.
The annual travel conference, expanding in size every year, has established itself as one of the nation's largest travel events as about 1,000 tourism industry-related people, including those from tour and travel agencies, airlines, hotels and academic circles from Korea and abroad will assemble.
The annual travel conference will comprise business consultations between Korean and foreign travel concerns, the UN WTO Special Session, the PATA Korea Chapter Congress, local government presentation sessions of excellent tourism policies, lectures by the convention academy as well as four theme sessions, including ones on the cruise industry in Korean and a job fair for prospective tourism businesspeople. In particular, the Korea Travel Conference 2008 will have more substantial seminar sessions than were offered last year. Such prominent speakers as PATA CEO and President Petor de Jong will speak at the conference.
It is the first time that the Korea Travel Conference will introduce local governments'presentations of excellent tourism policies so that local governments can exchange policy information. The session will cover Mokpo's 'got'(a traditional cylindrical Korean hat) -shaped rock culture street, the Andong International Mask Dance Festival and the Boryeong Mud Festival. Major travel operators from such countries as Japan and China will hold one-on-one business consultations with their Korean counterparts. A job fair will be held to help college students land jobs in travel-related industries.
The Chungcheongbuk-do provincial government, co-organizer of the conference, will offer participants an opportunity to take a half-day tour to such tourist attractions as Sangsu Herb Land, the presidential resort Cheongnamdae and a cruise on Chungju Lake. The provincial government will open a pavilion designed to publicize the province's tourism resources and offer diverse programs on the development of the local tourism industry. It is striving to make 2008 the starting point of its efforts to raise the standing of the province's tourism industry and to capitalize on its hosting of both the Korea Travel Conference 2008 and the 2008 Korea-China-Japan tourism ministers'meeting scheduled for June 22-25.
Chungcheongbuk-do Gov. Chung Woo-taik and 400 officials and businesspeople pledged to successfully host international events, develop diverse tourism products and attract tourists during a ceremony to declare a leap forward for the province's tourism industry at the Ramada Hotel in Cheongju on Feb. 1.
It has an ambitious plan to attract an estimated 950 trillion won worth of investments from the private sector to develop a mammoth tourism complex, beef up marketing activities for attracting foreign tourists and invigorate Cheongju Airport.
A provincial government official said the province has pristine tourism resources, including scenic natural attractions, but the tourism industry is underdeveloped due to a lack of diverse entertainment facilities and tourism products. nw

The Mokpo municipal government will present its representative tourism product on the 'got'(a traditional cylindrical Korean hat) -shaped rock culture street at the Korea Travel Conference 2008.

(from top photo)The Chungju Lake in Chungcheongbuk-do: the Gwangan Grand Bridge in Busan and Foreigners exciting at the Boryeong Mud Festival.