Tag Archives: South Korea

PATA Annual Summit 2018 underway in Gangneung, South Korea focuses on building bridges, connecting people and how collaboration creates opportunities. This four-day event brought together international thought leaders and industry professionals. The conference looked at various connections that help in shaping the industry as the world moves towards a more exponential future, bringing together a diverse line-up of international industry shapers and senior decision makers. Ban Ki-Moon, Former Secretary-General, United Nations, delivered the keynote address and Taleb Rifai, Former Secretary-General, UNWTO, provided the closing remarks.

According to Passport Index developed by global financial advisory firm Arton Capital, Singapore tops the rank of being the most powerful passport in the world under the Global Passport Power Rank 2017. This ranks passports of the world by their total visa-free score. Singapore is closely followed by Germany, Sweden and South Korea who are tied at number three, followed by eight other countries holding the number four spot jointly. The Indian passport appears at number 75 with a visa-free score of 51, ranking even lower than African countries like Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Some of the countries with a lower ranking than India are Egypt, Bhutan Cambodia, Jordon and our neighbours Sri Lanka and Nepal. The last on the list is Afghanistan with a score of 22 preceded by Iraq and Pakistan with a joint visa-free score of 26.

The Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) launched its first ever South Korea specialist programme in India with an aim to educate Indian travel trade partners about the travel assets of South Korea. The content is specifically designed as per the needs, requirements and expectations of the Indian travellers. The course is structured into four modules, each focusing on different aspect of tourism offerings of the destination. Upon completion, the participants will be duly acknowledged with Korea Specialist certificates. The course is created and hosted on TravelGyaan website. After completing the module, the participants can further take up the itinerary challenge and stand a chance of winning an I Phone 8. Approximately 450 travel agents have registered for the programme so far while 170 have finished their training programme. Jong Sool Kwon, Director, KTO, said, “Indian outbound market has tremendous potential and diverse requirements based on which we would like to educate the travel trade partners about South Korea’s tourism assets. We urge all the travel agents to come forward and make the most of the knowledge we intend to impart.”

AirAsia Berhad’s inaugural flight AK 31 connecting Kuala Lumpur to Bhubaneswar will arrive at Biju Patnaik International Airport on the night of April 26. It is the first international airline to operate to and from Bhubaneswar. The four-times weekly flight is estimated to take off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 22:10 hours and is expected to land in Bhubaneswar at 23:25 hours on April 26. Aireen Omar, CEO, AirAsia, and Tourism Malaysia Director General will be travelling to Bhubaneswar on the flight, which will be received with a traditional water salute upon welcome. The airline has received tremendous support from the Odisha Government and Odisha Tourism in particular. The airline will connect Bhubaneswar and Odisha to 120 AirAsia destinations in the Asia Pacific covering South East Asia China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

South Korea recorded an increase of 27.3 per cent in Indian arrivals in 2016 as compared to 2015. A total of 195,579 Indians travelled to South Korea last year. According to Byungsun Lee, Director, Korea Tourism Organization, “South Korea will be more accessible to the Indian traveller now. With the positive growth trend, our focus this year will be to promote affordable packages from Delhi and Mumbai with our partners. We shall also seek association with neighbouring tourism boards to jointly promote both destinations and create a win-win situation.” The constant efforts made by the Korea Tourism Organization, New Delhi office on educating the travel trade partners to promote the destination and proactive business approach from the Destination Management Companies (DMC) have been the key factors in the result. Connecting with the end traveller through tactical media platforms and increase in the airline connectivity from Delhi will play as game changer this year.

The flight frequency between Delhi and South Korea is set to increase to 12 flights per week by this December owning to an increase of 47.9 per cent in Indian visitor arrivals to the country. While Korean Air will be launching its Delhi operations in the month of December with five times a week frequency, Asiana Airline has increased its operations from three to five times a week from Delhi and plans to operate daily in the near future. As per Korea Tourism Organisation, New Delhi office, South Korea welcomed 88,917 visitors from India by the end of July 2016, which is an increase of 47.9 per cent as compared to the same period  of the previous year. According to Byungsun Lee, Director Korea Tourism Organization, “The tourism board’s effort on educating the travel trade partners to promote the destination in the best possible manner, the proactive business approach from the DMCs have been the key factors in the result. Over 1,50,000 Indians visited South Korea last year and we have almost 90,000 within seven months. So we are confident of surpassing the last year’s numbers by the end of 2016. As we approach the festival season and the winter holiday season, we plan to widen our efforts and establish South Korea as a preferred leisure destination amongst various traveller segments including families, honeymooners and adventure lovers.”

The Medical Tourism Index (MTI), released by Visa and Oxford Economics, shows that India’s medical tourism sector is among the top five markets in the world with affordable yet high-quality of healthcare. Canada, the UK, Israel, Singapore, Germany, France, South Korea, Italy and Colombia are some of the other top markets included in the list. Globally, the sector is worth an impressive US$439 billion, and could soar to a staggering US$3 trillion by 2025. The new report forecasts an annual growth rate of up to 25 per cent over the next decade given that 3-4 per cent of the world’s population will travel internationally for medical treatments in the coming decade. “The borders to quality healthcare access have begun to disintegrate,” MTI’s co-authors, Renée-Marie Stephano, president of the Medical Tourism Association, and Mark Fetscherin, associate professor of international business & marketing at Rollins College, said a joint statement. “Speculation about the medical tourism industry as a ‘phenomenon’ is over. This report and the rankings of the Medical Tourism Index provide a unique opportunity for investors seeking new ventures to make smart choices in destinations driving patient travel.” The report also predicts that China will overtake the US as the world’s largest outbound medical tourism market within the next 10 years.