The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Association held a New Year’s ceremony for the tourism industry on Jan. 8 at the Millennium Hilton Hotel in Seoul. The theme of the event was “Sharing Together, and Departing for Happy Tourism.”
Among the dignitaries at the ceremony were Rep. Sul Hoon, chairman of the Education, Culture, Sports, Tourism Committee of the National Assembly, President Byun Chu-seok of the Korea Tourism Organization, heads of tourism organizations and tourism agencies and foreign diplomats stationed in Seoul.
In his speech at the ceremony, Minister Kim Jong-deok said Korea should build popular tourist sites more around the country to attract more foreign tourists, which totaled mover 14 million last year. He congratulated the industry for attracting that many tourists last year. He said that the government, the tourism industry and the people should join hands to make Korea one of the best tourist destinations in the world so that Koreans can enjoy their lives more.
Chairman Nam Sang-man of Korea Tourism Association said everyone in the tourism industry did their best to attract over 14 million foreign tourists last year, despite various problems on the way, including a global economic slowdown. He called players in the industry to do their best again this year, to beat last year’s total. He also asked the government to provide support to the industry to solve problems along the way — such as the elimination of the green belt — to be build more tourism facilities in Korea, including hotels. He said tourism is a happy business and we should share the happiness from the industry this year, too, with everyone doing their best in the race.
Choreographer Kim Sul-jin presented a dance performance and videos with the message that makes people happy through tourism. It was backed up by a performance by Seoul Tourism High School band featuring drums to please the participants at the ceremony.
The ceremony started with KBS announcer Lee Jae-hong declaring the opening of the event at 5 p.m. and introduced the guests at the event. Chairman Nam Sang-man followed with a speech to open the New Year’s gathering. Minister Kim Jong-deok also made his speech outlining what the tourism industry should do this year and how the government should support it, so that Korea can expect to attract more number of foreign tourists to Korea.
A media performance choreographed by choreographer Kim Sul-jin excited the crowd. The event included both dancing and media performances to show the beauty of the tourism industry, mixing media and dancing. At the end, a mix of dance and media created the theme of the New Year’s gathering, “Departing Together, Sharing Happy Tour.”
A presentation of cabinet ministers and other dignitaries was performed. The title of the New Year’s gathering was “Departing Together and Sharing, Happy Tourism.” It showed a number of key tourism destinations in Korea on videos and called on the tourism people to come together to make this a year tourism year.
A 10-man band from Seoul Tourism High School performed a drum beating musical performance, followed by an official dinner which at 7 p.m. to close the 2015 New Year’s gathering of tourism industry people, government officials, legislators and those related with tourism.
