Outbound

Korea Tourism makes a comeback with newer strategies

Signs MoU with TAAI

Anupama Sushil - New Delhi

Korea Tourism has made a comeback reinforcing its presence in the Indian market with a newer focus, having earlier made their presence felt in 2004. The Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) has set up their national tourist office in Delhi, as the city remains one of the focus markets for the tourism organisation. The tourism authority is also looking at emphasising on promotions and destination awareness in almost all major metropolises in the country. As they look at the metropolises, the obvious target audience would be the up market section that can afford the destination, said Tae Shik Kim, director, Korea Tourism Organisation, Delhi.

Taking their effort forward, the director said that the strategy as of now would be to stay extremely visible and hence this has made them choose the strategic location of a mall for the office. The targeted audience would be the higher income group and the numerous transit passengers, he added. Out of the many tourism products that the country boasts of, Korea only began with promoting a few prominent and specific destinations. The catch, he said was that no other country from the region had attempted to explore the Indian market and thus that would surely prove an exclusive benefit to Korea.

While, business travel from India to Korea is greater, it makes sense to target that section in a big way, commented the director. The KTO is trying to tie up with the Korean consumer brands present in India and make their employees more aware of the destination, thereby adding value to their travel and extending it to a leisure holiday as well. Hence for this, KTO and the organisations will work closely on the same. KTO also has a strong interest in inviting the Indian film production units to Korea, hence making it a popular destination for shootings. As the Beijing Olympics come closer, KTO is also looking at selling both Korea and China as a destination, if needed. Taking the relationship further the KTC have signed a memorandum of understanding with Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI). The memorandum will help the Indian agents to explore more itineraries and areas and newer products in Korea, while the KTO acts as the facilitator in the entire process, he commented. While the visa issuance to Korea takes two to three days, the process is also being made relatively quicker now.