QATAR Airways and Korea Tourism Office (KTO), which are both participating in the coming Riyadh Travel Fair, in Saudi Arabia, hosted a team of travel agents from Jeddah to showcase Korea’s leisure industry.
The trip lasted a week covering the major touristic cities of Seoul, Busan and Jeju Island.
It was a unique experience for the travel trade as the lust for identifying new destinations and positioning among customers remains a priority in the burgeoning GCC travel industry.
The agents were delighted to experience something unique with the destination matching every requirement of an average Saudi traveller such as night shopping, an Arab-style market, halal restaurants, friendly people, safety and security.
The visitors enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime experience sampling ATV rides on the mountainous and coastal terrains of Jeju Island, a submarine tour, rifle training and a ride aboard the bullet train at 310 KMH.
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The visitors took to the hills in all terraine vehicles |
Other attractions included a visit to the 24-hour shopping markets of Dongdaemun with more than 50,000 stores, a cable car ride from N Seoul Tower, a visit to two of the Top 10 theme parks in the world, a journey through the future of wireless technology and a variety of cultural experiences.
Saudi Arabia has been a growing market for South Korea with summer 2010 arrivals increasing 80 per cent on the previous year.
The largest number of these arrivals were FIT travellers of the higher middle-income group and educational tourism from schools and universities.
“Today, the cities of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi continue to be our biggest markets from the GCC region in terms of tourism arrivals. Therefore, this could be a turning point in positioning Korea as the newest tourism destination for Saudi nationals in the western region as well,” said Seunghyun Hwang, regional director, KTO, Gulf region.
Syed Hafeez, a senior executive at STTB Travel acknowledged that Korea is a miracle destination waiting to be discovered since Saudis do not require a visa visit Korea, a modern city with state-of-the-art infrastructure, a clean, safe and secure environment and so much more to offer.
KTO and Qatar Airways have been working closely in positioning the destination among their customers by organising frequent familiarisation tours for travel agents and media delegations, hosting Arab celebrities to shoot travel documentaries in Korea and several other campaigns.