South Korea Determined To Develop Chinese Tourism Market

South Korea has made a range of plans to attract Chinese tourists this year.

According to Chinese media, South Korea will focus on Incheon, the city which has the largest Chinatown of the country, for tourism promotion and designate the year of 2009 as Incheon Tourism Year. Meanwhile, it will organize a series of marketing activities in China to attract Chinese tourists.

Besides attending a number of tourism exhibitions in China, the Korea National Tourism Organization will cooperate with the South Korean Embassy and the Korean Cultural Service in holding events such as Sino-Korea Week to facilitate Chinese tourists' understanding of Korean and its culture. KNTO will also focus on launching travel products targeting senior citizens and young tourists. It will cooperate with senior citizen commissions across China in an effort to bring the number of Chinese senior tourists visiting to Korea to 10,000. Also in the year, a study tour targeting Chinese students will be launched to offer these students the opportunity to experience traditional Korean culture.

In addition, KNTO will cooperate with travel agencies and airline companies to offer many different travel products themed on beauty, fashion, and shopping.

To date, KNTO has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Qingdao and Shenyang.