'Tourism organization must be proactive'

Lotte Hotel and Resorts President and CEO Song Yong-dok

By Yun Suh-young

HAINAN, China ― Lotte Hotel and Resorts President and CEO Song Yong-dok expressed regret in the lack of participation of Korea’s government and business at the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) event held this year in Hainan, China, from Thursday to Friday.

Song was the only executive-level delegate representing Korea at the summit this year, a situation which had not changed for the past few years since Lotte Group, the nation’s fifth largest conglomerate, joined the council in 2011 as the first Korean member.

WTTC is the largest global network of tourism industry officials and organizations consisting of 100 members worldwide.

“Korean officials’ effort to promote the country in overseas conferences is pretty weak. It would have been great if people from government agencies came to help us introduce Korea and network with CEOs of global companies to establish a reputation to attract the 2017 WTTC Global Summit in Korea,” said Song during a group interview with Korean reporters at the summit.

The weak representation of Korea at the council starkly contrasted with other Asian countries where dozens of delegates from different companies attended the conference as members.

Japan had delegates from organizations such as JTB, the largest travel agency in Japan, as well as Visit Japan, Japan Association of Travel Agents, and Japan National Tourism Organization. Japan’s largest airline company, Japan Airlines, also attended the summit.

China, the host nation, had companies such as China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Tourism Group, and Beijing Tourism Group participating in the summit.

The lack of participation was a reflection of low interest and need among Korean companies and government agencies in global networking and promoting the country in the global arena.

“Support from the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) or the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism would have been helpful in promoting our country at the summit. There’s a need to be active in representing the nation overseas but the government agencies seem to be passive in this area,” said Song.

“In the case of Hainan, which is the host of this summit, the island was active in attracting the global summit at the provincial level.

“As for Japan, they were invested heavily as a nation in attracting the 2012 WTTC Global Summit in Tokyo. There are speculations that Seoul will be the host for the 2017 WTTC Global Summit, but if we really want to promote the country ahead of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the KTO and the culture ministry must work harder to attract the summit at the national level.”

He suggested that an organizational committee be established to attract the global summit.

“During last year’s Asia Summit held at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul, the KTO and the culture ministry actively supported the event. But that was a regional summit which was smaller in size.

“For the global summit, it needs to be organized through a special committee that can prepare and host the event on a global scale. This is not something a single company can take charge of.”

The WTTC, although most of its members are private companies, also has national tourism organizations as members. Korea’s tourism organization, however, is not a member of the council.