Korea’s New Tourism CEO

Lee Cham becomes first naturalized citizen to head a state-run company as CEO of Korea Tourism Organization

President Lee Cham of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) during his first morning staff meeting since taking office, said you have to feel shaken, pulled, and echoed while mixed among the people to create a new tourism culture, under what he called the “Lee Cham Chart of 5 Rim” Strategy. The strategy is based on an Oriental philosophy on the description of the movement of the Universe based on tree, fire, earth, echo and water ― the five large movements.
The CEO first stressed the shaking of the trees, meaning that tourists should be shaken or excited to take an interest in tourism. New ideas for tourism like the excitement one feels when in love for the first time should be introduced to make tourism flourish in the country. He said the appeal of a burning fire was likened to being pulled, suggesting that Korea should be made to look like it has something exciting, instead of being just a dull place.
Lee said he got the idea of being mixed with all the people of Korea, meaning that the KTO should be an organization that includes anybody, not a separate entity, and this value of being mixed together should be spread to the entire country.
Tourism should also leave an echo like the catharsis you have after viewing a great performance. “You have to ask yourself all the time if foreign tourists would be able to feel Korea is their home country after visiting,” he said. Lee said he wants to break down all the office formalities created during the past several decades of the KTO’s operations and, as if to take the first step toward that direction, the officers at the morning meeting ate sandwiches and coffee in a congenial atmosphere.
He said he fears whether he will be able to change the KTO around and create dramatic results during his three-year tenure in the office.
President Lee recently attracted a lot of attention around the country because he is the first naturalized citizen ever to be named head of a government-run corporation.
In his inaugural speech, the former German citizen said he feels a huge responsibility to head such a government-run company as the KTO with its 47-year history of operations.
He said he has a very unique background, having lived in Korea for 31 years, most of the time as a blue-eyed Korean with a typical Korean family made up of a Korean wife and children with experiences in diverse areas.
He was naturalized in 1986, although he first came to Korea in 1978. The Gutenberg University graduate said he will dedicate the remainder of his life to the cause of upgrading Korea’s international image for the country’s globalization as he has been doing ever since he came to Korea, saying that his past experiences made him well qualified to do the kind of work he will be doing as head of the KTO.
Admittedly, Korea has made great progress in its effort to be one of the best known tourist destinations in Asia with foreign tourist arrivals exceeding 7 million annually. “But we can do more,” Lee said.
The new CEO said the situation calls for everyone to do his or her best as the government has been urging government-run corporations to improve their management, while society wants them to be more transparent. He said he has long been interested in the tourism industry, considering it one of the most attractive industrial areas. He has also discovered some of the advantages and disadvantages the industry is faced with now.
First, the international image of the Korean tourism industry is not up to par with the national economic scale and its potential. Its incoming tourist numbers versus GDP is the lowest among the OECD member countries at 0.7 percent, which shows that the industry did not have enough strategic systems to foster its growth and support.
Second, the number of outbound tourists outnumber inbound tourists by 1.7 times, which invites a huge imbalance in the area of tourism revenues. Third, the tourism industry’s competitiveness level is unsatisfactory. Its lodging and other facilities are not comparable to those in Japan and its price competitiveness has yet to catch up with the Chinese. In global terms, Korea ranks 31st as a tourist country and only sixth in Asia.
The new CEO said Korea must draw up strategies to upgrade the competitiveness of its tourism industry as soon as possible.
He pointed to the company’s plans to improve tour guiding and lodging facilities by diversifying them along with improved education for KTO staff. nw

President Lee Cham of the Korea Tourism Organization.

The KTO President with model and actor Lee Jun-ki, who has been named as a tourism ambassador.