Korea, Saudi Arabia to boost cultural exchanges

Yoo Jin-ryong, right, minister of culture, sports and tourism, and Prince Sultan bin Salman, secretary-general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), pose after signing an agreement at Yoo’s Office in Waryong-dong, Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of Culture Ministry

By Park Jin-hai

Korea and Saudi Arabia have agreed to push for a program to boost tourism and cultural exchanges between the two nations.

Yoo Jin-ryong, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Prince Sultan bin Salman, Secretary-general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), signed the agreement during a ceremony at Yoo’s Office in Waryong-dong, central Seoul, Monday.

Under the program the two nations will exchange and train craftsmen in their respective countries as well as staging handicraft exhibitions.

They also agreed to partner in promoting medical tourism exchanges.

In a press conference held after signing the agreement, Sultan bin Salman, said, “When I was told of the program to take Saudi national handicrafts to the next level, Korea was the natural choice.”

He talked about his last visit to Korea for the 2011 United Nations World Tourism Organization conference, when he bought some handicrafts made by master craftsmen and how much he was fascinated by the beauty and craftsmanship of those artifacts.

Minister Yoo also expressed great optimism about the program and emphasized the need to forge a firm foundation so that young people in both countries could better understand and foster exchanges in the area of cultural handicrafts.

“If the cooperation in the 70’s and 80’s between the two countries were centered on the economy, now we are expanding the territory of cooperation to culture and tourism, so that the hallyu phenomenon can spread more widely,” said Yoo.