HAVING benefitted from the raging Korean wave, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) is looking for more ways to boost the leisure travel market from the city-state to South Korea by zooming in on niches such as golfing as well as medical and education tourism.
From January to November 2012, visitor arrivals from Singapore to South Korea leapt 27.7 per cent year-on-year from 96,653 to 124,426, according to statistics from KTO. For 2013, KTO has set a target of 10 per cent increase in visitor arrivals from Singapore.
Speaking with TTG Asia e-Daily, KTO’s senior marketing manager, Adeline Goh, said: “We are targeting the mass market but have plans to tap the premium traveller market as well.
Goh said KTO had begun working with travel agencies to promote golf tours to Jeju last year. “We have had more than 100 golfers going to South Korea so far. Other premium options that we would like to see take off in 2013 is luxury stays.”
Fam trips will be organised for teachers and trade players in the education and medical tourism sectors to garner more visibility for South Korea in those aspects.
“The use of K-pop and K-dramas to promote tourism in Singapore has been very successful as it provides South Korea with the hip factor, and visitors want to visit many new and interesting locations shown in Korean dramas,” said Goh, adding that the NTO aimed to develop more itineraries centred around Korean pop culture, such as a Gangnam Style itinerary.
KTO plans to work closer with the travel trade in the year ahead by holding more joint FIT campaigns with travel agencies and promoting provinces beyond Seoul, Jeju Island and Gangwon-do, especially since 2013 marks the Visit Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongsangnam-do Year while the Suncheon Gardens Bay International Expo will run from April to October in Suncheon, an hour away from Yeosu.
Goh added: “Apart from regular province product presentations, we also intend to give FIT trainings to them on a bi-monthly basis.”
