Innovative Marketing Korea
(Media1=Howard Lee)
The Republic of Korea Ministry of Justice reported that a record high number of foreigners visited Korea this year. As of 27 December 2013, 12,000,000 foreign travelers visited Korea. This represents an 8.9% increase from previous year’s 11,140,000 visits.
Chinese visitors were an impressive 36% of this years’ total representing 4.3 million visitors. This is a surprising 53% increase in visiting Chinese when comparing the 2013 figure with the previous year.
Japanese visitors decreased 23.1%, from 2013’s 3,291,000 to 2,532,000 as of November 2013. As a result, China has replaced Japan as the number 1 source of visitors to Korea. This is a significant shift as Japan has traditionally been the leading source of visitors to Korea.
Overseas travel Market
Thailand has successfully proved an attractive destination for Koreans in 2013. A record high 1.297,200 Koreans visited Thailand in 2013 resulting in a 23.1% increase in travel to Thailand compared to the 1,163,619 who visited there in 2012. The increase is amazing considering the political and social chaos that has occurred in Thailand in recent years. This illustrates the value of proximity, a warm climate, diverse places of interest, and good shopping.
The Guam Visitors Bureau announced it will take a more aggressive marketing approach in Korea. To this end, the Guam Visitors Bureau has increased its Korean marketing budget by 40% in an effort to further develop the Korean market.
Inbound Market
The short-term and mid-term forecast for foreign travelers to visit Korea has rarely been very optimistic. Despite this fact, the Korean National Tourist Organization (KNTO) has projected 12,000,000 visitors for 2014. This would represent an 8% increase over 2013. This forecast appears too rosy and may not be practically achievable.
Areas of concern include the Chinese government’s new travel law that has had the effect to normalize travel business for Chinese overseas travel as of October 2013.
Upon the launch of this law, the rate of increase for Chinese visitation to Korea has fallen approximately 40% from the steady climb experienced over the last 3 years. While we agree that this change in Chinese law will bring long-term success for both countries’ future tourism exchanges, it may have an immediate negative short term impact on Korea as Chinese tourists explore their options. It is critical for the KNTO and the travel industry to provide contingency plans to minimize the damage and to achieve the target set for the year 2014.
The outlook for the Japanese market is gloomy. Japanese arrivals have been decreasing tremendously due to the territorial and historical disputes between Korea and Japan. We all agree that number won’t increase unless these problems are solved.
The Japanese Yen’s depreciation is also one of the major factors to threat the future prosperity with growing number of Japanese tourists in the country. However, the short term outlook shows no sign of improvement.
By Howard JC Lee
President & CEO
