KTA to Lead Resurgence of Tourism

Tourism industry can create more jobs by spurring tourism at home and attracting foreign tourists

The Korea Tourism Association (KTA) held its New Year reception at the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul on Jan. 5 with 1,000 people in attendance led by Minister Yu In-chon of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, President Oh Ji-chul of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and Chairman Shin Joong-mok of the KTA. Also present at the event were Reps. Cho Bae-sook, Kim Dong-sung, Song Hoon-suk, Lee Kyung-jae, and Cho Byung-hon along with foreign diplomats and leaders from various circles of society including finance, journalism and related organizations.
The event had special significance as it followed President Lee Myung-bak's New Year's address on television and announced the direction of the tourism industry in the future. KTA Chairman Shin said in his opening speech that the private sector should lead the development of the tourism industry in Korea and the industry should be fostered to create many jobs as it has the potential to do so at this time when the real economy is being seriously hurt by job losses.
The chairman continued to say that in order to revive the local economy, serious attention should be paid to the tourism industry so that each local autonomous administration can come up with a tourism product and a campaign to show various tourist attractions such as performances, food, events and scenic locales to spur domestic tourism growth.
Shin said, as everyone knows, the KTA helped launch the Visit Korea Year 2010-2012 program in cooperation with the government last year and set up the Forum for Strengthening Tourism Competitive Power in a bid to spur investment and create jobs.
He said, "Tough problems have always been there and we always take care of them as we pulled our power together to tackle them successfully." The KTA chairman said the KTA has drawn up a number of key objectives for the development of tourism in Korea this year. First, the KTA will strive to give the lead of the tourism businesses and policies to the private sector, as it is the only way to spur tourism in the country. Also, he said, the competitive edge of Korean tourism should be boosted through joint efforts by the government and the tourism industry.
Shin said the government plan to transfer the task of public companies to the private sector is being delayed and is behind schedule. He also said the participation of professors, researchers and related government agencies in drawing up tourism policies have often caused the development of policies that are unsuitable for real market situations. Therefore, he said, the private sector should be given a major role in the formulation of tourism policies in every phase.
He also said the public understanding of tourism needs to be changed in order to make tourism more competitive by improving service to foreign tourists in such areas as transportation, restaurants, shopping and lodging facilities by providing education to the people working in those business areas.
Second, Shin said the KTA would dedicate itself to creating jobs in the tourism industry, as it can create twice the number of jobs as those that can be created by the IT industry, for example. Young people should be able to get jobs abroad through working visa agreements with foreign countries while at the same time getting valuable overseas work experience to broaden their world views. The tourism industry can create many jobs through its upgraded development.
The KTA, therefore, will set up a center for working holiday information to help provide young people with the opportunities to work abroad. Third, the KTA plans to help spur the growth of the economy by invigorating the tourism industry, especially to support the growth of local economies, he said.
He said we must start to revive domestic tourism in order to attract increasing numbers of foreign tourists to the country. He said many domestic tourists turned their eyes to tourism destinations in Korea instead of overseas travels due to the steep fall in the value of the Korean won.
The KTA will cooperate with local autonomous entities so that each village and town in the provisional areas can have their own special tourism products indigenous to their regions including traditional performing arts, foods and others that can give joy and pleasure to foreign tourists. nw

Dignitaries at Korean Tourism Association New Year reception cut cake to usher in the New Year led by Minister Yu In-chon, 5th R, and a number of legislators including Rep. La Kyung-won, 4th L, and Lee Kyung-jae, 3rd R. Chairman Shin Joong-mok of KTA delivers his New Year speech at the event.