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Maureen’s Seoul Story:
November 2009
Show-casing Seoul to the world
Here at the Seoul Tourism Organization, one of my roles is to increase the awareness of Seoul city as an exciting and attractive tourism destination.
It takes many forms, often done via the written word, such as this newsletter or through articles for newspapers and magazines. I have appeared on Korean television shows and do a weekly radio broadcast highlighting intriguing areas for tourists and residents alike to visit in search of a new adventure.
But by far the most fulfilling, is to be able to sing the praises of Seoul on a personal level – be it face to face at a trade show, welcoming tourism industry professionals to the city, conducting educational presentations or delivering a speech. This past month has been a busy one full of such opportunities. I was in my element as in rapid succession I attended an Asia tourism trade show, welcomed two groups of overseas tour operators to Seoul and represented the city at two European conventions.
The flurry of activity kicked off on October 5 as I made my way to Bangkok, Thailand to attend the IT & CMA (Incentive Travel and Corporate Meetings Asia), an annual trade show for destinations to promote their convention capabilities and tourism attractions to meeting planners and travel professional from throughout the world. This year the city of Seoul had a large presence at the three day function as the Seoul Tourism Organization had a standalone booth on the trade floor. STO was also the proud host of the “Seoul Soiree” a gala dinner complete with a Korean traditional dress fashion show designed to give attendees a true “taste” of Seoul. I donned a Korean dress myself that evening to talk about the city in a presentation entitled, “The Seasons of Seoul”.
Next was the October 17th arrival of a group of USA based tour operators taking part in a five night Seoul familiarization tour. Most actively sell tours to Asia, but few had any developed programs for Seoul. In fact, for most it was their first visit to Seoul. Several of the participants were specialists in culinary tourism who were enthralled with the variety of Korean dishes and found Korea an untapped market for this tourism niche with tremendous potential. In particular, Mr. Eric Wolf, CEO of the International Culinary Tourism Association remarked that, “Korea is like a diamond in the rough just waiting to be discovered.” I couldn’t agree more. The following week found me back at the airport welcoming an incoming Finnair flight from Helsinki with a group of European tour operators and media. Once again, the first time visitors found Seoul fascinating and returned home eager to incorporate the city into future tour programs while the journalists were busy writing rave reviews about a destination to discover.
November found me Europe bound as I traveled to Budapest, Hungary to represent both the city of Seoul and the SKAL Club of Seoul at the annual SKAL Congress.
Skål is a professional organization that unites all branches of the travel and tourism industry at local, national, regional and international levels to discuss and pursue topics of common interest. Here I was joined by three other member of the Seoul Club together with representatives from the Korea Tourism Organization and the Incheon Tourism Organization as we worked together on a bid for Seoul to host the SKAL 2012 Convention. As soon as the SKAL Congress closed, I hopped a plane for the short flight to Florence, Italy to attend the 48th Congress of the International Congress and Convention Association. This year the annual five day gathering of leaders and opinion makers within the international meetings market was a record breaker – in both attendees and countries represented, which created a tremendous energy level throughout the event. Day two had me presenting at an education session entitled, “Developments in the Asian Region” – with my subject being how Seoul has evolved into a meetings powerhouse presently in ranked 2nd in Asia by ICCA.
I arrived back in Seoul on Friday the thirteenth of November, a day often considered unlucky; but I couldn’t help but think how lucky I was to be able to showcase Seoul to the world!
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