Seoul aims to attract more Southeast Asian tourists
Rhee Jae-sung, left, president of the Seoul Tourism Organization (STO), answers questions from reporters at a press conference held in downtown Seoul, Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Lee Suh-yoon
By Lee Suh-yoon
Seoul plans to target Southeast Asian visitors to boost tourism to make up for the continuing slack in the number of Chinese tourists, according to a city government-affiliated tourism body, Tuesday.
The number of Chinese tourists, which used to take up more than 50 percent of total inbound tourists, dropped by almost half in early 2017 after tensions erupted between the two countries over Korea's deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. The figure has rebounded slightly this year.
“From the information we got through our Beijing office, the Chinese authorities' tourist travel ban on Korea has been lifted in Beijing, Qingdao and Wuhan. But the big travel agencies that bring large groups of tourists are still waiting for a clear approval from the Chinese government,” Rhee Jae-sung, the president of the Seoul Tourism Organization (STO) said at a press conference.
“So we're trying to attract tourists from Southeast Asian and Muslim countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia,” Rhee said. “Seizing this new market would also help us in terms of diversification.”
He also added the recent ebb in Chinese tourists gave the organization a chance to redefine its long term goals.
“Apart from the slight setbacks due to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak and the THAAD conflict, our tourist business has expanded in size, but various problems also surfaced inside the pursuit of quantitative growth,” Rhee said. “Now that the big tour groups are gone, we want to take this opportunity to focus more on the quality of tourism in Korea.”
As a part of this plan, the STO pledged to host multi-party discussions with residents and tour agencies, over solutions for “over-tourism” problems in neighborhoods such as the Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul.
“Instead of simply attracting a larger number of tourists, we want to act as a communication platform between various stakeholders – tourists, agencies, and residents – to come up with solutions such as set visiting hours,” Rhee said. “We also want to work with tour agencies so tourists can be informed about relevant etiquette for specific neighborhoods before they are dropped off there.”
The STO also plans to concentrate on domestic tourism more, in line with Koreans' increased leisure time following the adoption of the 52-hour workweek. It will start by offering its Discover Seoul Pass – giving access to all of the main tour sites – to Koreans next year. The pass has been so far available only for foreign visitors.