South Korea and Japan have presented a joint project, “Korea and Japan: A Blooming Path to the East,” designed to attract additional tourist flows to these countries.
On January 25, 2018, the thirteenth annual Antor MICE workshop was held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Moscow. organized by the Association of National Tourist Offices in Russia (ANTOR).
The joint presentation of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) and the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) entitled “Korea and Japan: A Blooming Path to the East” attracted special attention from the participants of the event dedicated to the development of business tourism. The KTO speaker was Ekaterina Lopukhina, Marketing Director of the Moscow branch of NOTK. Also taking part in the presentation of the project were Ms. Airi Motokura, Director of the Moscow representative office of JNTO, Mr. Kang Namgyu, Director of the Moscow office of NOTK, Mr. Jang Congsik, Regional Director of Sales and Marketing for KoreanAir in Russia and the CIS.
Before presenting the project, Ekaterina Lopukhina noted that the tourism offices of Japan and Korea have open, friendly relations. In addition, the tourist flow to these Asian countries has been steadily growing in recent years. All this contributed to the creation of an unusual joint project, "Korea and Japan: A Blooming Path to the East," designed to open new tourist routes.
Valery Korovkin, Head of the International Cooperation Department of the Federal Agency Rostourism, who attended the event, in his opening remarks highly praised the joint project of the two countries, noting the uniqueness and potential of this undertaking.
Ms. Airi Motokura said that Japan is becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination for Russians, and the easing of the visa regime between Japan and Russia has played a significant role in this. The Moscow office of JNTO is doing a lot of work to develop new tourist destinations in order to show guests not only the traditionally popular cities of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, but also other, less crowded, but very interesting places.
Last year, the number of foreign citizens visiting Japan “broke all records” in the history of tourism and amounted to more than 28 million people, thus the growth dynamics compared to 2016 amounted to 19.3%. The Japanese government has set a new goal - to increase this figure to 40 million by 2020, when the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in Tokyo. In 2017, more than 77 thousand visits were registered from Russia to Japan, thus the growth compared to 2016 amounted to 40.8%. This is the highest figure for the entry of Russian citizens since the beginning of statistical observations.
Mr. Kang Namgyu, Director of the Moscow Office of NOTK, noted in his speech that the number of tourists from Russia to South Korea has increased significantly over the past year. In 2017, Korea was visited by more than 270,000 Russians. And, despite the fact that the route from Russia to Korea is not close, many want to see its attractions, unique cultural heritage sites. Korea can provide the best conference centers, meeting and negotiation venues for business tourism. In addition, the country's nature is beautiful at any time of year, and tourists can enjoy picturesque mountains and a clean sea. Korea will host such an event that unites the whole world as the Olympic Games, which will also help maintain tourist interest.
“I am confident that the combined tour of Korea and Japan will give your clients a special and unforgettable experience,” Mr. KangNamgyu concluded.
Korea has great potential as a transit tourism center, as Seoul opens up further routes to many countries in the Eastern Hemisphere, including Japan. And you can get to Seoul from Russia using direct flights from Korean Air.
Source: trn-news.ru
