Jeju Island gears up to host next PATA meeting

Jeju Island gears up to host next PATA meeting

The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

Although the next Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)
conference is still a year away, the host, South Korea's Jeju
Island, has been gearing up to promote the event among the
prospective participants gathered in Bali this year.

Kee Min, South Korea's delegation head to the 52nd PATA
conference in Nusa Dua, told reporters on Wednesday that he had
brought along with him 39 South Korean delegates, ranging from
public officials, hoteliers and immigration and customs officers
to promote the event and learn how the conference should be
organized.

"We want to lean how Bali has prepared and proceeds with the
conference. But we want to produce a better one than this
conference," he said.

Kee Min said the Jeju Provincial government had set aside
US$500,000 for promotion purposes alone.

"We want to market Jeju through having a big conference,
inviting the media and putting commercials on television," Kee
Min said.

Jeju Island is the largest and one of the most popular resort
islands in South Korea. It is located 60 miles (around 90
kilometers) from the southern mainland coast.

The island is home to 550,000 people, occupying an area of 700
square miles.

Like Bali, the island attracts many tourists, more than 4.5
million tourists a year, 10 percent of them non-Korean.

Kee Min said the island would take advantage of the PATA
conference next year to attract more foreign tourists to the
island.

For the conference, the island has prepared four five-star
hotels and hundreds of non-star accommodations. It has also built
a convention center that can take up to 4,300 people.