Korea’s travel industry leader vows full support for RP’s tourism thrust

THE newly-installed leader of Korea’s travel industry has vowed to support the Philippines’ tourism marketing campaign in the Korean peninsula.
Newly-elected president Shin Joongmok of the Korean Tourism Association (KTA) made that vow at an appreciation party for the Korean travel trade community and media in downtown Seoul recently.

"In my capacity as president of KTA, I pledge to continue to pursue cooperative endeavors in tourism to help support the DoT’s (Philippine Department of Tourism’s) Team Korea," Shin told the party’s more than 200 guests.

Just recently, Shin and rest of the KTA threw their all-out support to the DoT Team Korea for its 5th Philippine Hotels and Resorts Road Show, which was sponsored by Philippine Airlines (PAL) and covered the key cities of Seoul, Busan and Daegu.

"It couldn’t have come at a more opportune time," Shin said in referring to the road show, one of the highly-successful components of the DoT’s marketing campaign in Korea, now the largest Asian market for Philippine tourism.

Shin placed the number of Korean arrivals to the Philippines at an average of 45,000 a month. With Shin at the party are other industry leaders, including KTA vice president Jon Kim, concurrent president of Apple tour.

Kim will be in charge of KTA’s international relations. Thanking the KTA members and other guests, DoT Team Korea Head Maricon Basco-Ebron said:

"On behalf of the Department of Tourism of the Philippines, let me take this opportunity of conveying warm greetings from Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano and his heartfelt thanks to the members of the Korean travel trade community here as well as the news media for their continued support and help in making the Philippines one of the popular destinations for Korea." Ebron also cited Durano’s determination to raise foreign arrivals to the Philippines to five million by 2010.

For 2006, the DoT expects the total Korean arrivals to reach 600,000 by yearend, a 20 percent increase from last year’s figures. This makes Korea the Philippines’ second-biggest source of foreign tourists, accounting for 19.5 percent market share during the first eight months of the year.

"To sustain the momentum, the Philippine government will continue to pursue cooperative endeavors in tourism, including the sending of Korean instructors to teach the Korean language to tourist frontliners, the conduct of cross-cultural learning programs for Korean executives based in the Philippines, and the undertaking of joint ventures to develop tourist sites in the country," Ebron told The Seoul Times in a recent interview.