'Tourism and Climate Change
'Emerging as Global Topics

Korea Travel Conference Held in Cheongju March 26-27

About 1,500 tourism industry-related people, including those from tour and travel agencies, airlines, hotels and academic circles from Korea and abroad got together at the Korea Travel Conference 2008 held at the Ramada Plaza Cheongju Hotel in Cheongju on March 26-27.
The Korea Travel Conference, which evolved from the PATA Korea Chapter Annual Meeting in 2005, celebrated its fourth year. It was jointly hosted by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and the Chungcheongbuk-do provincial government under the theme 'Tourism Today and Tomorrow.'The annual conference, expanding in size every year, has established itself as one of the nation's largest travel-related events. It was the first time in its history that the UNWTO convened its special session on desitination branding strategies.
In his opening ceremony speech, Chungcheongbuk-do Gov. Chung Woo-taik said, "Chungcheongbuk-do will focus on the implementation of mammoth projects to tap scenic tourism resources to prepare itself ahead of a succession of international events, including the 2008 Korea-China-Japan tourism ministers"meeting scheduled for June 22-25 and the 2010 World Hanbang-Bio Expo in Jaecheon."He expressed the hope that successfully hosting the annual travel conference will provide member companies with opportunities to promote mutual business benefits and strengthen cooperative networking, thus contributing to a boost to the domestic tourism industry.
Korea Tourism Organization President Oh Jee-chul said, "tourism is an environmentally-friendly industry, the future potential of which is enormous and means more to the economy today than ever before. The perception of it as a critical driver of the economy in the 21st century continues to influence people and businesses throughout the world. I expect the Korea Travel Conference 2008 to serve as a forum to address some of the pressing issues the domestic tourism industry faces and explore alterative options."In his keynote speech, titled "Tourism and Climate Change: Confronting the Challenge,"Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) President and CEO Peter de Jong said, "What matters now is that we, collectively, must formulate and implement real solutions, not only to reduce our emissions but also to influence consumer and media perceptions. We must demonstrate a strong, industry-wide commitment to fight this global threat."He added, "We are to some degree a 'soft'target, largely because we have for so long been fragmented and clustered into individual operating units, the so-called 'silo's of transportation, accommodation, destination management, tour operation, retailing and so on. Seldom, if ever, have we come together to find and use a single, cohesive voice."He said, "PATA is providing precisely that, through the inaugural "PATA CEO Challenge: Confronting Climate Change"on April 29-30 in Bangkok, Thailand. Several hundred senior industry leaders will convene to present and share practical, affordable and measurable solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of our industry. We will share best practices, discuss new initiatives, innovations and technologies."He cited several reasons why attending the landmark event makes good business sense: risk reduction, realizing opportunities, reducing costs, corporate social responsibility and reputation management.
The annual travel conference also highlighted business consultations between some 20 Korean and 14 foreign travel concerns, the UN WTO Special Session, the PATA Korea Chapter Congress, local governments"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. nw

The Korea Travel Conference 2008, held at the Ramada Plaza Cheongju Hotel in Cheongju on March 26-27, served as a channel of networking among people of tourism-related industries.