SEOUL, April 11 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s global ranking in tourism competitiveness has jumped to 19th this year, backed by an improvement in market openness and infrastructure, a report showed Tuesday. The global ranking of Asia’s fourth-largest economy moved up 10 spots in 2017 compared with two years earlier, tagging along with top tourist [...]
SEOUL, April 4 (Korea Bizwire) – Chinese travelers’ preference for South Korea plunged over the past year, a survey showed Tuesday, apparently from the tension between the two countries over the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system. A poll by Ctrip, a leading online travel services agency in China, ranked South Korea 16th in [...]
SEOUL, March 15 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea is keeping a close watch on China’s next moves that may work to further hurt its industries, as Beijing’s travel ban to its neighboring country came into effect Wednesday, the latest hostile measure taken in protest of Seoul’s stationing of a U.S. anti-missile system. China-based travel agencies, [...]
SHANGHAI/SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) – China has instructed travel agencies in the country to stop selling trips to South Korea, sources said Thursday, in what is seen as another retaliatory move against Seoul’s decision to deploy an advanced U.S. anti-missile defense system. According to industry sources in China, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) – The 2017 Korea Travel Expo kicked off Thursday at COEX for a four-day run, featuring over 300 businesses and organizations related to domestic tourism. This year’s expo marks its 14th anniversary, and will include information on travel content in Korea, traditional and modern, lectures by famous travel writers and [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s aircraft finance sector is likely to grow this year, industry officials said Thursday, amid increased demand from air traffic passengers. Yoo Byung-soo, who handles aircraft finance at KTB Investment & Securities, said he expects the country’s aircraft finance market to reach between 4 trillion won (US$3.5 billion) [...]
TOKYO, Feb. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of Japanese tourists visiting South Korea increased 23.4 percent from a year earlier to 2.30 million in 2016 amid improved relations between the two neighboring countries, marking a reversal from declines for three consecutive years, data showed Monday. According to the Tokyo office of the state-run Korea [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – The average growth rate of outgoing tourism from South Korea has far outpaced that of domestic tourism, data showed Wednesday. The number of Koreans who traveled abroad rose by an average annual growth rate of 10.4 percent to 19 million in 2015, from 12 million in 2011, the Ministry [...]
BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Korea Bizwire) – An international cruise ship operator has cut the number of its services linking China directly with South Korea, a move deemed to be in line with Beijing’s retaliatory steps against Seoul’s planned installment of a U.S. anti-missile defense system, industry sources said Tuesday. According to the sources, MSC, which [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s air passenger traffic reached a new high in 2016 on a sharp increase in international passengers to and from the country amid expanded services of low-cost carriers (LCCs), the transportation ministry said Monday. Air passenger traffic came in at 103.9 million last year, breaching the 100 million mark [...]