New President Byun Chu-seok of Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) 

gives his inaugural speech at a ceremony at the KTO office recently.

Professor Byun Chu-seok of Kookmin University Visual Design School in Seoul has been named President of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said April 4.

 The new president is a graduate of Choongang University with a BA in visual design. From 2007 to 2009, he worked for the KTO in charge of the KTO brand, ads, and public relations as an advisor.

 MCST officials said Byun has extensive experience useful in running the KTO particularly in such areas as attracting foreign tourists, invigorating domestic tourism, public relations, marketing, and others, which are key functions of the KTO and therefore, amply qualify him to head the organization.

Byun is expected to lead change and reform of the KTO to support the Creative Economy being driven by the government and reestablish the KTO’s standing and functions so that it might be able to explore new tourism markets and create new demand for tourism to put the tourism industry a step up the ladder of its development as a promising service industry in Korea, the officials said.

 Minister Yoo Jin-ryong of the MCST presented the letter of appointment to the new KTO CEO on April 4, the first day of his three-year term running the state-run tourism organization and spearhead the flourishing of the nation’s tourism industry.

 Byun was the head of the public relations team for the President Park Geun-hye in 2012 during the presidential campaign. Before moving to the political arena, he was dean of the Kookmin University Design College in 2010. The Weekly Tourism program being handled so far by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) has gotten a shot in the arm with the added participation of 17 wide-area local autonomous organizations in the nation-wide tourism promotion campaign.

Boost for Weekly Tourism Program:  

On April 3, the MCST convened the First 2014 City and Provincial Tourism Directors Meeting at Conventia in the Incheon Wide-area City in Songdo led by Dir. - Gen. Kim Ki-hong of the Tourism Bureau of the MCST and Dir. - Gen. Park Tae-young of Planning, Tourism and Leisure of the MCST along with 17 regional city and provincial tourism directors totaling some 60.

 For the first time, the participants went through the promotional activities of the Weekly Tourism program scheduled from May 1-11 and discussed plans to spur domestic and regional tourism, officials of the MCST said.

 At the second Tourism Promotion Expanded Meeting held on Feb. 3, the participants decided that the Weekly Tourism program set for May and September should promote domestic travel and expand domestic consumption as a joint project for both official and civilian sectors.

 Also discussed at the April meeting were encouraging investments and creating jobs by easing regulations in tourism areas.

The 17 city and provincial representatives agreed that some regulations have been blocking the promotion of tourism in their areas and that some of the regulations should be eased. The areas that the regulations should be eased will be pinpointed in order to encourage tourism development, start-ups in tourism, tourism manpower, and more, and those recommendations will be discussed in detail before the government takes action.

The regulations relaxation proposed at the second tourism directors meeting in November 2013, such as the expansion of the designation of airports for the transfer of passengers in regional areas and the invigoration of smart tourism, among others, were reconfirmed at the second Expanded Tourism Promotion Meeting in February and recommended for loosening.

Dir. - Gen.  Kim of the Tourism Bureau of the MCST said close cooperation with local autonomous organizations will make the Weekly Tourism program in May an occasion to uplift domestic tourism and the loosening of tourism regulations should be pursued in consideration of the opinions from the regional tourism sites.

 The MCST will take up such issues as the development of the civilian tourism periphery with the participation of local residents; Korea mobility system including walking; nature-friendly tourism source development; and the implementation of integrated guidelines and follow-up tasks for nurturing the tourism industry in order to secure cooperation from the regional autonomous organizations in implementing government tasks.

 The participants of the meeting all agreed that tearing down the walls between the government and local autonomous organizations and related organizations are needed to spur cooperation towards invigorating regional tourism. They also agreed that the 17 municipal and local autonomous provinces will cooperate with the government to make the Sept. 19 Asian Games a great success.