TravTalk India Online Magazine
In addition to Seoul, Korea Tourism Organization is keen to promote regional destinations such as Busan, Gangwon province and Jeollanam-do province in the Indian market. Keeping this in mind, it became the first NTO recently to launch an incentive scheme for leisure packages in the country.
Hazel Jain
This year is special for Korea and India as it marks 50 years of the Korea-India diplomatic relations. Taking advantage of this milestone, Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) is activating the market further. Sharing more details is Myongkil Yun, Director of KTO India office, says, “To mark this occasion, we launch this special K-Incentive Scheme for travel agents in India. The scheme’s main benefits include providing travel agents with prizes of USD 30 per passenger as well as support for quick, and hassle-free visas for visitors to Korea between June and December 2023. This is the first time any NTO is launching an incentive scheme for leisure travel packages in India.”
To be eligible for this scheme, travel agencies had to share their marketing plan. Ten travel agencies will be chosen for this. In addition to Seoul, KTO is keen to promote regional destinations in Korea, including Busan, Gangwon province and Jeollanam-do province. Any of these regional destinations in the itinerary would be a condition to be eligible for the benefits of the K-incentive Scheme, he added.
Yun says, “Seoul has the Han river so there are a lot of Han river dinner cruise. It is also one of the unique venues for M!CE. In 2016, we received 1.9 lakh arrivals from India but in 2019, it fell to 1.4 lakh. The good news is that the recovery post COVID is close to 70 per cent and we hope to reach 90 per cent of pre-COVID by December 2023. Our target number this year is to cross 1.3 lakh arrivals from India. M!CE traffic from India makes up for almost 70 per cent of the total numbers. To encourage this, we will develop new packages targeted at bleisure travellers.”
KTO will conduct a big roadshow in Delhi this August bringing in local agents and DMCs from Korea. Yun says, “This year, South Korea is seeing a surge in visitors from India, and we are keen to further boost that with the launch of the K-incentive scheme. The Korea wave is very big in India today and we are ready to support travel agents who promote our destination.”
Direct flight connection is good for increasing numbers, India currently has direct flight only from New Delhi into Seoul, he says. “It is difficult to manage big groups without good air connectivity, so we normally get between 100-200 pax groups,” the KTO Director says.
Riaz Munshi, President, OTOAI, says, “Korea has enormous potential to grow from the Indian market and I am confident that together we can generate good numbers for the destination. On behalf of OTOAI. I would like to thank Korea Tourism for specially curating this incentive programme. I would like to request all the members to whole-heartedly support the destination by recommending it to your clients.”
