Korean tourism looks to attact Indonesian visitors

JAKARTA (JP): We get the snow and you get the beaches. That was the deal Dal-Lyong Choi, the executive vice president for overseas tourism marketing at the Korea National Tourism Organization, offered.

South Korea, he said, promotes the beauty of the four separate seasons, something tropical countries do not have, while Indonesia boasts exotic beaches.

With this deal, South Korea is hoping for a flow of 150,000 tourists between the two countries this year, or an increase of some 50 percent from last year.

The country is in the middle of its Visit Korea Year 2001, an extensive campaign to boost its tourism.

"We feel that Indonesia is an important counterpart and one of our potential markets," Dal-Lyong said here last week during the one-day Korea Travel Mart and Korea Night 2001.

According to Dal-Lyong, in the first half of this year 32,000 Indonesian tourists visited Korea and some 52,000 Korean tourists traveled to Indonesia.

"Both (figures) show an increase of more than 50 percent compared to last year," he said.

Last year, the total number of Indonesian tourists visiting South Korea was 60,000, or some 1.1 percent of the 5.3 million tourists who traveled to the country.

Of the 5.3 million tourists, 45 percent were Japanese; 18.9 percent were from China and Southeast Asia, including Indonesia; 10 percent came from the United States; 8.5 percent from Europe; 1 percent from Australia and its surrounding area; and the rest were from Africa.

"The main attraction is the snow. Many tourists come for the skiing," Dal-Lyong said.

Next year, South Korea will be hosting two major sporting events -- the World Cup and the Asian Games -- that are sure to boost tourist numbers.

Meanwhile, the marketing manager of the Singapore office of the Korea National Tourism Organization, Ivy Mak, said many tourists were attracted to South Korea by the indoor pursuit of shopping.

"We want to promote shopping. Seoul is a shopping destination. We have inexpensive products like leather and other Korean brand- name items," she said.

The Korea Travel Mart last week was the first of its kind here and was attended by more than 20 South Korean travel operators, half of them representing ski resorts.

Some 80 Indonesian travel agencies were also invited to the exhibition.

The event also marked the opening of a branch office of the Korea National Tourism Organization in Jakarta.

"We already have 20 branch offices in the world. The Southeast Asian market was being handled solely by the office in Singapore," Dal-Lyong said.

"We chose Jakarta because we have direct flights between here and Seoul with Garuda Indonesia, Korean Airlines and Asiana Airlines," he said.

The South Korean government has allocated some US$20 million for the Visit Korea Year 2001 campaign.

"Half of the money is focused on Japan. But Asia is becoming more and more important so we are focusing on the entire region," Dal-Lyong said. (hdn)