KTO to promote tourism with Tencent

Min Min-hong, right, executive vice president for international tourism at the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), shakes hands with Steven Chang, Tecent's corporate vice president, at the KTO's Seoul office, Tuesday, after signing a business agreement to increase Chinese visitors to Korea. / Courtesy of Korea Tourism Organization

By Kim Jae-heun

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has teamed up with China's largest IT firm Tencent to increase Chinese visitors to Korea.

The two sides reached the business agreement at the KTO's Seoul office, Tuesday.

Under the agreement, they will cooperate on a variety of businesses designed to promote Chinese tourists to Korea and help them travel Korea easily.

In addition, the Chinese company plans to encourage their employees to visit Korea and enjoy shopping and eating _ two favorite activities of Chinese tourists to Korea.

Tencent, whose market capitalization is $470 billion (507 trillion won), is mainly doing business in the fields of social media messengers, games and online payment services.

It operates China's top social media app WeChat with 1 billion active users.

In that respect, the KTO plans to take advantage of Tencent's big data collected on Chinese travelers' overseas trips and improve ways to cater to Chinese tourists.

The tourism body expects the new deal to bring Chinese tourists back to Seoul.

Angered by Korea's decision to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system here, the Chinese government banned travel agencies from selling Korea travel packages in March 2017 _ a move hitting the nation's tourism industry that was heavily dependent on Chinese tourists.

The KTO will release summer season-specialized ads through WeChat Moments and other video platforms. It also plans to offer promotion for 48,000 executives and employees of Tencent.

“Tecent is China's largest IT firm that operates various online platforms and owns an incredible amount of users. It is the best company to promote our tourism within China,” a KTO official said.

“We are seeing positive signs and improvements in our tourism market with Chinese tourists. However, we still have a few more barriers to overcome. We hope the new deal will increase momentum in recovering our relationship with Chinese tourists.”