IT Industry As Tourist Attraction

Asiana Airlines successfully sells its IT package tours in Korea, luring 10,000 Chinese tourists so far

Asiana Airlines has successfully attracted 10,000 Chinese tourists to Korea in three months with its tourism product focusing on information technology, the air carrier said recently.
The airline held a ceremony on Oct. 12 at Incheon International Airport to celebrate the arrival of the 10,000th Chinese tourist on its IT tour promotion program, which consists of visiting Korea's IT facilities and buying some of the high-tech IT products available during the tours.
The airline started to work on creating the tourism program to take advantage of the interest of Chinese people in Korea's IT industry and launched the program at all of its ticketing offices in China in June.
The major stops in the program include Samsung's Delight Hall in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul; the Sangam-dong Pavilion and electronic products shops in Yongsan, Seoul; and Jeju Island, which has become popular among Chinese tourists.
Li Jin, the 10,000th Chinese tourist, during a brief airport ceremony, got round-trip tickets on international routes of Asiana Airlines and IT products as gifts from the airline and the Visit Korea Year Committee. Li said he has been keen on Korea's IT products and IT industry as well as sightseeing in Seoul and other locations and finally decided to visit. Li said, "I had no idea that I would be the 10,000th visitor from China on the program," and was surprised that he was given the gifts during the ceremony.
Asiana has been pursuing diversified tourism promotion programs related to attracting passengers on its Korea-China flights of late, as the Chinese interest in Korean tourism grows ever larger.
The airline jointly set up special Korean tour programs for Chinese tourists during the Chinese national holiday from Oct. 1-7 together with E-mart and Shinsegae Department Store.
An official of Asiana Airlines said the airline was able to carry about 62 percent of the 11,200 Bio Gen Group employees visiting Korea during the Chinese national holiday.
The airline prepared special in-flight announcements to welcome the Chinese tourists, the single largest tourist group so far to fly to Korea, and assigned special personnel at major airports in China, including Beijing and Shanghai, to take care of those tourists coming from diverse areas of China where the Bio Gen Group plants are located.
Asiana Airlines Inc. will import six A380 super-jetliners from Airbus and put them in service in 2014 at a cost of some 2 trillion won or 400 billion won per plane, the airline said recently.
Group Chairman Park Sam-koo is said to have swung the big deal as he often did in the past since his recent comeback to the helm of the Kumho-Asiana Group. An A380, known as 'a flying hotel,' is a super passenger liner 73 meters long, 79.8 meters from wing tip to wing tip, and 24.1 meters high, capable of seating from 700 to 800 passengers per flight and equipped with all kinds of amenities including a shower room, a bar, and others.
The brand new passenger liner is also light, made with glass fabrics, aluminum silica and titanium, and other high-tech materials, and therefore uses less fuel.
Officials of the airlines said the decision to purchase the A380s is part of Asiana's determination to be reborn as a premium-class airline, joining such airlines as Emirates, Air France, Lufthansa, Qantas, and Singapore, to name just a few. The world's major airlines are engaged in tough competition to secure more passengers by putting in service those super-large airliners.
Asiana officials said the new airplanes will be a medium to upgrade the airlines' status along with last year's record profit. nw

A scene of the ceremony on Oct. 12 at Incheon International Airport to welcome 10,000 th
tourist from China by Asiana Airlines on its IT Korea Tour Package.

Photo on courtesy of Asiana Airlines