Record meetings for Korea

Korea Travel Expo, which was held from June 22-24, recorded a total of 900 meetings and on average 160+ B2B engagements per exhibitor from South Korea, shares Young-Geul Choi, Director, Korea Tourism Organization, New Delhi office.

Nisha Vermaa

The delegation, led by Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), for the Korea Travel Expo consisted of representatives from around nine DMCs, six regions and one attraction. Sharing how successful the event was, Young-Geul Choi said, “Overall, our first digital event in India market was very successful. We had our 17 Exhibitors meeting over 900 attendees over 3 days with an average of 160+ B2B engagements per exhibitor over video calls, voice calls and chat discussion. We received extremely positive feedback from our partner exhibitors post event with almost 40% of exhibitors claiming this virtual event experience better than any other online events they have attended so far and 75% of them confirming their interest to participate again.”

In terms of the experience of the participants, he said, “From the exhibitors’ side, they appreciated the simplified platform, their vibrant and colourful virtual booth designs and almost lag-free meetings & interaction experience. The general feedback received from the buyers is also very positive. Almost half of our exhibitors were participating in India market for the first time or after a long time. Hence, our Indian travel agencies were happy to make new connections. We had some fun games and a virtual photobooth experience, which saw overwhelming response and participation from the buyers’ side.”

However, Choi said that until the borders open, it is always very difficult to quantify B2B meetings into direct business conversions. “However, the main aim of the event was to ensure that South Korea keeps fresh in the minds of the Indian travel agents and they are able to forge new partnerships and connections for 2022, which is when we are targeting for genuine tourism to begin between our two countries. I can happily say that our main objective of the project has been fully achieved,” he added.

Sharing the buyer demands/ requirements which came to the fore from agents during the virtual event, he said, “Currently, most of the enquiries revolved around the tourism reopening dates and travel guidelines. However, from the MICE side, we saw an interest from Indian buyers to consider South Korea as a genuine destination for attending exhibitions. From leisure and FIT side, there were increased enquiries beyond Seoul city.”

Praising the partners, Choi shared, “I would like to commend the efforts of our virtual expo partner DDPPL and their team for delivering a successful event. Like in any other project, there are obviously learnings, which we will try to improve upon. Our event was designed to emulate an actual exhibition where sellers experience walk-in crowd.”