Visitor arrivals to Korea have been increasing rapidly over the past few years and as of 1 December 2011, the annual number of foreign tourists to Korea has surpassed the nine million mark. Over the past three years, Korea has seen growth of international visitors to the country of over one million visitors per year.
Visitor arrivals have jumped from only two million visitors to Korea in 1988, the year of the Seoul Olympic Games to five million in 2000, seven million in 2009, eight million in 2010, and now to over nine million in 2011.
The Australian market to Korea has also been seeing good growth this year with a recent 37.1% increase seen in the month of October alone. It is hoped that the introduction of ski tourism packages for the 2010/11 ski season will give a large boost to the number of Australians visiting Korea during the winter months. Several ski tour specialists have introduced special ski packages for this winter season including Skimax, Value Tours, JTB Australia and Hana Tours.
Despite the challenges that Korean tourism has faced this year, such as the ongoing global economic crisis, since June the Korean tourism industry has maintained a double digit growth rate. There has been a 7% increase of Japanese tourists to Korea compared to last year reaching three million visitors as well as an excellent 17% increase of Chinese tourists exceeding two million for the first time in history.
The continued growth of the Japanese and Chinese markets mostly due to the attraction of Korea’s Hallyu tourism brand image (the Korean Wave – K-Pop Music, Movies, Dramas) and its increased awareness has contributed greatly in drawing more visitors generally.
It is expected also that the recent success of the K-Pop concert in Sydney as well as many Hallyu events for the Asian Australian market will draw more Australians with an interest in Korean music, films and dramas to Korea in the coming years.
The South Korean government has implemented many special Hallyu events in Korea to draw more visitors as well as shopping attractions like the Korea Grand Sale 2012 from January 9 – 29 February, Fun Ski Festival events from 15 December through till 4th March.
The Yeosu Expo 2012 will be the largest event for Korea next year with eight million visitors expected to visit the expo in the southern coastal city of Yeosu. The Expo with the theme of the ‘The Living Ocean and Coast’ will run from May 12 to August 12 and the Australian Government will have a pavilion at the Expo. Tickets are presently on sale for the Expo via the official Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea website.
Further details of the above events can be found at the following websites:-
Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea – http://www.expo2012.or.kr/
Korea Grand Sale 2012 – http://www.koreagrandsale.or.kr/
Fun Ski & Snow Festival 2011/12 – visit http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/ and search ‘Fun Ski Festival’.
Hallyu Events in Korea – See official travel website for Korea http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/ and click on English/Asian homepage to see ‘Hallyu Today’
A free 230 page full colour travel guidebook as well as Korea Grand Sale discount shopping cards and Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea information booklets are available by contacting the Sydney office of Korea Tourism Organization Email: visitkorea@knto.org.au Ph: (02) 9252-4147/8
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