FIVE years since the opening of the Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) office in Dubai, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have become the two key inbound markets from the Middle East, where traditionally the largest regional arrivals were Turkey, Egypt and Iran.
Korea received 7.8 million tourists in 2009, an increase of 13.8 per cent over the previous year. Arrivals from the Middle East were estimated at around 69,000 with Gulf visitors recording a remarkable growth during the summer months.
Arrival figures from Middle East and CIS countries have increased by 35 per cent with GCC arrivals growing at 25 to 30 per cent compared to last year. July arrivals from the Gulf region surpassed all previous records with growth of more than 146 per cent compared to last year.
Speaking to TTN, Hwang SeungHyun, regional director KTO Dubai, said: “We have witnessed excellent trends from the Middle East because Korea was nowhere in the GCC leisure map five years ago and it was purely a business destination. Leisure travel started evolving two years ago and today we are not only enjoying double-digit growth but are also receiving educational groups and year-round travel.”
 |
|
Seoul Tower...in a winter wonderland |
Korea is regarded as an excellent value-for-money destination as the country is safe and clean and the people are friendly.
“When it comes to tourism, we have a diversified range of products such as 24-hour shopping, modern theme parks, ski resorts, wellness and spa, 5,000-year history, a beautiful beach destination and several Unesco sites and Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures are due to open their theme parks within the next few years” added SeungHyun. “Apart from that, the country itself is at the forefront of technology. Therefore, for a tourist experiencing Korea, it is a fusion of technology versus traditions.”
Visit Korea 2010-2012 is an ongoing campaign by KTO, with the objective of targeting 10 million visitors to Korea by the end of 2012.
Several initiatives are in progress to achieve this target from the Seoul Grand Sale to festivals such as the Hallyu Dream Festival, Busan Fireworks Festival, Korean Food Festival, Jeju Ole Trekking Festival, Tae-an Environment Festival, DMZ and Tourism World Peace Music Festival and World Culture Festival all taking place during this period.
The KTO office in Dubai is aggressively marketing this campaign in the Middle East region with a series of promotional activities such as the launch of an Arabic website (www.elakorea.com), tailor-made tourist brochures and a food guide for Muslim visitors.
The organisation has also launched a specialist programme for travel agents in the GCC and other Middle East countries, an e-learning training programme for agents. SeungHyun adds: “We realised the urgent need for a specialist training programme that could be done from the comfort of your office or home.
“Korea Specialist Programme was carefully designed to incorporate the necessities of local tourists while travelling on a holiday. It consists of five modules covering various aspects of the tourism industry with a multi-choice questionnaire. Since Korea is positioned as a new destination, the focus of the programme was centred on major cities.”
To encourage maximum participation, KTO has equipped agents with some trendy gadgets since Korea is known for technology.
“For Saudi agents, we have teamed up with Qatar Airways to offer free tickets and free nights in Seoul for a lucky winner,” said SeungHyun. “We have also picked some travel professionals with medical tourism and Mice backgrounds from the GCC region to travel to Korea for an international expo happening this month.
“Above all, Etihad is due to launch its flights to Seoul on December 10 and we are working together to host a group of travel agents on the first flight.”