‘Calls to Make K-Tourism a First Mover of Korean Economy’

Minister Park Bo-gyoon of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST), KTO President Kim Jang-sil, Chairperson Lee Boo-jin of the Korea Visit Committee (VKC), Chairman Yoon Young-ho of the Korea Tourism Association, Chairperson Park In-sook of Korea Tourist Guide Association (KOTGA), and President Song Mi-sun of Hana Tour attend a private-public sector strategy meeting designed to invigorate the so-called K-tourism in conjunction with the “Visit Korea 2023-2024” Initiative at Tourism Organization (KTO) Seoul Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, on March 2. (Photo: MCST)

Minister Park Bo-gyoon of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) led a private-public sector strategy meeting designed to invigorate the so-called K-tourism in conjunction with the “Visit Korea 2023-2024” initiative.

The meeting took place at Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) Seoul Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, on March 2.

Among those on hand at the meeting were newly elected Chairperson Lee Boo-jin of the Korea Visit Committee (VKC), concurrently president of Hotel Shilla, KTO President Kim Jang-sil, Chairman Yoon Young-ho of the Korea Tourism Association, Chairperson Park In-sook of Korea Tourist Guide Association (KOTGA), and President Song Mi-sun of Hana Tour.

The meeting involved an in-depth discussion based on genres and themes according to the ”3Cs strategies” of K-tourism: Convergence (combining K-culture, all the rage across the globe, and tourism to make traveling to Korea a bucket list for peoples around the world), Charming attractions (developing exciting and unique content) and Convenience (expanding convenient and comfortable tourism infrastructure).

MCST Minister Park said, “K-tourism industry is a sector of compressing the competitiveness, attraction and extendibility of K-content spreading over the globe, and the year 2023 will be the first year that exquisitely melting the irreplaceable weapon K-culture into K-tourism may lead to a tourism power.”

VKC Chairperson Lee said, “We’ll make efforts to make K-tourism a first mover of the Korean economy by selling a storytelling format of combining K-culture, such as cultural arts, K-pop, game, performance and sports into an exciting story to the world and mobilizing capabilities of the tourism industry, such as airline, shopping, food and accommodation.”

Lee said she would spare no efforts to make K-tourism attractive by listening and responding to the inconveniences foreign tourists experience, and making the Visit Korea 2023 and 2024 Years initiative a success by leveraging the expertise the tourism community has accumulated over the years.

KTO President Kim said, “KTO will aggressively implement diverse projects to make the Visit Korea 2023 and 2024 Years initiative a success, and with the election of the VKC chairperson at a significant time, the initiative is expected to gain ground.”

KTA Chairman Yoon called for taking stock of local acceptance of tourism to brace for a surge in inbound tourists and continued regulatory reform.

KOTGA Chairperson Park said, “Korea has to build up fundamentals lest the tourism industry can be swayed by international relationships and hotel, transportation and food segments ought to raise their acceptance standing.”

She also called for expanding convenience facilities so as to eliminate inconveniences individual tourists experience.

Hana Tour President Song recommended collaboration among the corporate, education and government sectors to assist in the development of each local government’s representative products based on storytelling, support for the development of hallyu (Korean Wave) products using K-culture, and securing tourism manpower.