SKorea targeted by Tourism Bureau as part of NE Asia campaign

2016/11/23

The Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications is ramping up efforts to increase the number of South Koreans visiting Taiwan as part of a strategy to grow the country’s share of the Northeast Asian outbound tourism market.

Bureau Deputy Director-General Liu Hsi-lin said Taiwan has put in great efforts in this area and is seeing results as evidenced by the 628,726 South Korean tourists arriving in country for the first nine months of the year, up 33.72 percent from the same period in 2015.

According to the bureau, it is targeting younger South Korean nongroup tourists through promotions centering on cuisine and pop culture. For group tourists, the bureau is working with local travel agencies in South Korea to offer new, benefit-laden packages.

Part of the bureau’s strategy involves supporting such initiatives as the annual Tourism Exchange Conference, which was staged Nov. 18 in central Taiwan’s Taichung City. Organized alternately by Taiwan Visitors Association in conjunction with Korean Association of Travel Agents, the 31st edition of the one-day event attracted nearly 235 industry representatives from the two countries.

Top issues for discussion included jointly developing respective marketing strategies, identifying new market segments and appealing to return customers, lifting service and tour standards, boosting airline cooperation, promoting visits to scenic spots outside metropolitan areas and deepening the role of local businesses in the tourism industry.

Taiwan-South Korea reciprocal visit numbers hit a record high of 1.16 million in 2015, and are forecast to reach 1. 5 million this year and over 2 million in 2017. According to the bureau, expanding flight services is one reason for the increase, with education-, sports- and TV-related tourism expected to play their part in achieving the target.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=249648&ctNode=2194&mp=9)