Healing Tour Is Star Attraction of Exhibition
(Published November 12, 2012)

Gyeonggi Provincial Government closes Gyeonggi International Travel Mart November 11th.

◇ The successful four-day-long 10th Gyeonggi International Travel Mart attended by 194 tourist companies from 29 countries closed this past November 11th. View of the opening ceremony. ⓒ G-News Plus Heo Seon-ryang

The Gyeonggi International Travel Mart was held at KINTEX from November 8 to 11 with 194 participating tourist companies and organizations from 29 countries worldwide.

Upon closing the event, its host, the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization, evaluated this year’s exhibition as a “trend -setting event” and “a market exhibition that has made a real contribution to the tourism industry.”
 
Exchanging Tourist Industry Secrets with the Private Sector

This year’s event was all the more special because the Tourist Industry Business Consulting section offered advice to public officials in particular on how to stimulate the tourist industry.
 
Korea’s largest travel company, Hana Tour, shared experience and know-how on how to put together package tours and pitch sales with 64 public officials from 21 districts who are involved in tourism. The commercial tour companies agreed to conduct one-on-one consulting sessions for government workers. Eleven district governments and 11 tourist companies participated in the event in a total of 44 consulting sessions.
 
A public official who took part in this special consulting program said, “It was very helpful to learn from actual experience rather than reading dry textbook theories. I guess this is the spirit of the exhibition.”
 
Professional travel magazines from Korea, Japan, and Taiwan got together at a conference to discuss Asian tour exchange programs and the future of the travel industry.
 
World Costume Festival & World Fashion Show

The World Fashion Show became the center of attention with ambassadors and their families from 43 countries showing off their respective countries’ national costumes. Over 100 family members modeled outfits on the catwalk, much to the delight of visitors to the exhibition.◇ The highlight of this year’s exhibition was the World Fashion Show organized by forty-three embassies. ⓒ G-News Plus Heo Seon-ryang
 
The ambassadors and their families first appeared on stage wearing specially designed hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) and followed this up with a showcase of their traditional outfits. Some ambassadors did a little dance on the stage, cheered on by the excited crowd. It was a festive event of ‘worldly togetherness’.
 

Healing tour and related experience programs prove popular
 
Another popular spot was the experience program section of the Healing Tour. “Healing” has been an important theme recently.
 
The Healing Tour Theme Center provided visitors with an estimate of their physical age and dental age based on on-the-spot check-up results. Visitors could also get a makeover at the center’s makeup section, or make special chocolate with jangdan soybeans.

The Farm Village Experience Pavilion hosted by Yeoncheon County and Yeoju County was a big success with family groups in particular. The center displayed the latest camping gear along with a camping car, attracting a favorable response from many visitors.
 
The 1,000 Won Tour was a big hit again this year, with all 280 tickets selling out in no time at all. Over 300 visitors got the chance to visit Gyeonggi Province’s major tourist sites in the cities of Suwon, Paju, and Pocheon for the bargain price of KRW 1,000.
 

Making its mark as a mart-exhibition
 
This year the exhibition did more than simply provide travel information – it was also a great opportunity for product exchange. Hana Tour, the nation’s largest travel company and organizer of this sales exhibition, and other travel companies posted sales worth KRW 940 million.
 
A Gyeonggi Tourism Organization official said, “We were able to read the latest travel trends, which will be reflected in next year’s exhibition.”
 
The organization will redesign next year’s Gyeonggi International Travel Mart as a SMART exhibition, short for Stylish, Marketable, Amusing, Relevant, and Trendy.

Gyeonggi Tourism Organization President Hwang Jun-ki said, “This year’s healing tour exhibition was meaningful because it provided an opportunity to exchange useful information with the travel industry. Actual travel information and products were exchanged at the exhibition, like a market. Next year we will include more cultural contents in what will be a more sensitive and cultural approach to travel. It will be a smart travel exhibition that is up to date with the latest trends.”

ⓒ G-News Plus News | Chun Gyeong-nam chun0403@kg21.net
 
http://gnews.gg.go.kr/news/news_detail.asp?number=201211121647477055C049&s_code=C049