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Korea lowers travel alert level for Hong Kong

A man is let go after being interrogated by a police officer after a protest at Edinburgh Place in Hong Kong, Jan. 12, 2020. ReutersSouth Korea on Friday lowered its travel alert level for Hong Kong, the foreign ministry said, amid signs of stability in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory plagued by clashes between pro-democracy protesters and police.The ministry downgraded the alert level to "caution," the lowest of the four-tier warning system. In November last year, it raised the level by one notch to "restraint" due to increasingly violent confrontation between the two sides."In line with this change, the government asks citizens to take care of their safety while in Hong Kong," the ministry said in a press release. (Yonhap)

Jan 17, 2020
Korea lowers travel alert level for Hong Kong

Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan compete to attract Korean tourists

By Jun Ji-hyeThailand, Vietnam and Taiwan have been in heated competition to attract more Korean tourists during the Lunar New Year holiday amid lower travel demand for Japan, industry officials said Thursday. Seollal, or the Lunar New Year, is one of the nation's biggest traditional holidays. Its four-day weekend starts Jan. 23. While cities in Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan have competed to figure in the upper ranks in recent surveys of popular destinations, travel-and-hotel booking site Trip.com said Bangkok came top in its analysis of holidaymakers who bought flight tickets offered by the company.Vietnam's Da Nang and Taiwan's Taipei were second and third. In terms of hotel reservations, Bangkok also ranked first, followed by Taipei and Da Nang. Trip.com noted its analysis showed 50 percent of holidaymakers chose to travel alone during the holiday, attributing this to the rapidly growing number of single-person households.“Forms of families have changed a lot over the years, with the number of single-person households having grown,” a Trip.com official said. “This

Jan 16, 2020
Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan compete to attract Korean tourists

Hotel Lobby

By Jun Ji-hyeMillennium Hilton Seoul hosts promotions featuring oystersMillennium Hilton Seoul is hosting special promotions featuring oysters at its Italian restaurant Il Ponte and Chinese restaurant Taipan.The special event is available as part of a five-course meal at Il Ponte and seven-course meal at Taipan throughout January, offering visitors a chance to enjoy the delectable mollusks when they are at their freshest.The meal is priced at 120,000 won ($104) per person at Il Ponte and 145,000 won at Taipan. Fresh oysters ― a rich source of protein, vitamins, calcium and other minerals ― have long been one of the most sought-after and highly prized delicacies in the world. Novotel Ambassador Seoul Doksan presents winter vacation packageNovotel Ambassador Seoul Doksan is offering guests a chance to enjoy various indoor activities with its winter vacation package.The package, which will run until Feb. 29, includes a one-night stay and vouchers worth 30,000 won for access to an indoor screen baseball facility, which is three minutes away from the hotel. At the facility, guests can enj

Jan 16, 2020
Hotel Lobby

Luxury hotels lure millennials with strawberries

Walkerhill Hotels & Resorts is offering a strawberry dessert buffet, Very Berry Strawberry, under the concept of an amusement park until April. 26. / Courtesy of Walkerhill Hotels & ResortsBy Jun Ji-hyeAfter celebrating Christmas and New Year's Day with various events and promotions, luxury hotels here are now going all out to win the hearts and minds of visitors with strawberry buffets and strawberry-themed afternoon tea sets.Every January, hotels become a battlefield of strawberries as the peak of the strawberry season occurs in midwinter in Korea. The popularity of photogenic strawberry buffets and afternoon tea sets is growing especially among millennials, the generation born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, who tend to place a value on “Instagrammable” experiences. Instagrammable is a neologism referring to photos that are worth posting on Instagram to share memorable moments with friends. Hotels' strawberry-themed events that are cheaper than regular dinners and attract young people who tend to pursue “small luxuries” which are expens

Jan 16, 2020
Luxury hotels lure millennials with strawberries

Pengsoo promotes 'industrial tourism' spots

Pengsoo feeds cows during his recent visit to Anseong Farmland in Gyeonggi Province in this photo provided by the Korea Tourism Organization, Wednesday. / Courtesy of Korea Tourism Organization By Jun Ji-hyeThe Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has joined hands with Pengsoo, an outspoken penguin character that has become a YouTube star, to promote “industrial tourism” spots, seeking to ride on the popularity of the character and attract more visitors, the KTO said Wednesday. Pengsoo, owned by educational TV station EBS, recently visited Anseong Farmland in Gyeonggi Province that offers visitors a chance to enjoy various experience programs related to agricultural and dairy industries. During the visit, Pengsoo participated in activities such as feeding cows, chasing sheep and making cheese.Anseong Farmland is one of the 20 industrial tourism spots worth visiting, selected last year by the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, and the KTO.The locations showing the n

Jan 15, 2020By Jun Ji-hye
Pengsoo promotes 'industrial tourism' spots

Hawaii was most popular honeymoon destination in 2019

Waikiki beach in Honolulu of Hawaii / Courtesy of HanaTourBy Jun Ji-hyeAn increasing number of newlyweds here are choosing to travel far when going on a honeymoon, opting to visit Hawaii or European countries rather than nearby Southeast Asian nations, according to a local travel agency.HanaTour, the nation's largest travel agency, has recently released its analysis result of honeymooners who have bought group tour programs offered by the company for the last five years.Hawaii was the most popular destination last year, with 19.6 percent of honeymooners choosing it, while European countries came in second at 16.2 percent. In 2015, the U.S. resort island ranked second at 15.1 percent in terms of popularity, after Phuket.But Hawaii reached the top spot in 2016, and has since maintained its popularity. European nations have also enhanced their presence as honeymoon destinations on the back of the growing popularity of Eastern European cities such as Prague in the Czech Republic.On the other hand, vacation spots at Southeast Asian nations have been falling in popularity as honeymoon dest

Jan 9, 2020

Hotels rolling out various Lunar New Year packages

By Jun Ji-hyeHotels have been cited as one of the best places to enjoy time off without leaving the city in recent years, as evidenced by a neologism “hocance” ― a combination of hotel and vacance (the French word for vacation) ― meaning spending a vacation in a local hotel.Along with hocance, another phenomenon is growing here for Seollal, or the Lunar New Year, as an increasing number of people want to have a rest and relieve their stress during the traditional holiday, instead of spending it in a traditional way such as visiting their hometown to spend time with relatives, which sometimes involves food preparations and many hours of traveling due to a serious traffic congestion on the highways.Riding on these two trends, local hotels have been rushing to release a variety of special packages and events for the Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 23 through Jan. 27 so guests can make their holiday an extra special one.Lotte Hotel Lotte Hotel is offering various package products at its 16 outlets nationwide, featuring luxurious experiences and memorable leisure activitie

Jan 9, 2020By Jun Ji-hye

Incheon cruise terminal grappling with THAAD aftermath

The Incheon Port International Cruise Terminal opened in April last year, but has shown lackluster performance due to the lasting aftermath of the THAAD deployment. / Courtesy of Incheon Port AuthorityBy Jun Ji-hyeThe nation's largest cruise terminal located in the city of Incheon has continued to suffer losses as it has hosted fewer ships and passengers than initially expected in the lasting aftermath of China's economic retaliation over Korea's deployment of the U.S. missile defense system, the operator of the terminal said Wednesday.The disappointing performance is taken seriously in the industry, given that the government poured more than 100 billion won ($85 million) over five years to construct the two-story terminal exclusively for cruise ships with a space of 7,364 square meters in the city's international business district of Songdo. The Incheon Port International Cruise Terminal officially opened in April 2019. With the opening of the terminal, the government aimed to attract foreign cruise passengers, particularly Chinese travelers, and boost the underdeveloped domestic in

Jan 8, 2020
Incheon cruise terminal grappling with THAAD aftermath

5,000 Chinese visit Korea on incentive trip

A group of Chinese tourists arrive at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, in this Sep. 23, 2019 file photo. Some 5,000 employees of a Chinese health food company have arrived in Korea on an incentive trip, the Korea Tourism Organization said Tuesday. /Korea Times photo by Park Hyung-kiBy Bahk Eun-jiMore than 5,000 employees of a Chinese health food company have arrived in Korea on an incentive trip, the largest number since the mainland restricted group travel to South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, the state-run tourism promotion agency said Tuesday.According to the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), the employees of Yi Yong Tang began a six-day trip to various tourist attractions in Seoul and Incheon. “This trip by the Chinese firm marked the largest one as a company's incentive travel trip since 2017,” a KTO official said. The Chinese tourists are also scheduled to attend a special concert by K-pop singers Hwang Chi-yeol and Lee Jung-hyun in Incheon on Thursday. Yi Yong Tang, based in Shenyang, China's Liaoning Province, distributes and manufactures health

Jan 7, 2020By Bahk Eun-ji
5,000 Chinese visit Korea on incentive trip
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