South Korea has launched a K-tourism innovation task force, a new initiative aimed at boosting tourism arrivals.
The public-private partnership is tasked with promoting more visitation by leveraging the global interest in Korean culture.
It is led by Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Chae Hwi-young, and includes more than 20 task force members from government, academia and the private sector.
The task force plans to meet bimonthly to discuss strategy to increase inbound tourism, and impeove visitation to regional destinations.
The task force includes representatives from the Korea Tourism Organization, Korea Airports Corp., Korea Railroad Corp., and Korea Transport Institute.
Minister Chae said it aims to take a leaf out of Japan’s tourism playbook “Although K-culture is enjoying enormous global influence, we need to carefully examine what Japan has done well over the past decade.”
One of the main challenges is dispersing tourism away from the Seoul metropolitan area to lesser visited regional destinations, he said.
This includes encouraging airlines to launch more international flights to the regions.
“With the K-tourism innovation task force, we will move beyond Seoul and ensure that communities across the country share in the benefits of a thriving tourism ecosystem.”
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