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Press Release
Tassie Tempts Korean and Japanese Visitors
29 February 2008
Tasmania is looking to boost its profile as a holiday destination for Korean travellers as the biggest names in the Korean travel industry gather for the Korea Trade Mission (KTM) in Seoul.
The Minister for Economic Development and Tourism, Paula Wriedt, said the three-day event organised by Tourism Australia, provided an excellent opportunity to target key travel media and trade buyers from the emerging Korean market.
“At KTM 2008 our in-market representatives will be boosting the profile of Tasmania as a holiday destination for Koreans through a series of presentations, briefings and meetings with travel trade and influential travel media,” Ms Wriedt said.
The biennial event is this year focusing on the Free Independent Traveller (FIT) segment of the Korean market.
“Korean consumers’ travel patterns are rapidly changing from group packages to more free independent tours with a focus on hiking and the outdoors.
“And Tasmania is such an easy destination to tour around – visitors can explore every corner of our island State on their own,” Ms Wriedt said.
Korea is Australia’s sixth largest visitor market with over 200,000 visitors arriving in the country last year.
“Although still considered an emerging market for Tasmania, visitor numbers from Korea have been steadily growing over the past two years off a small base, especially in the independent and youth market.
“And with the commencement of direct flights to Melbourne with Korea Air last October, Tasmania can look forward to continued growth from this region,” Ms Wriedt said.
The Free Independent Traveller market was also a focus of Tourism Tasmania’s presentation to 45 key Japanese buyers at the annual Japan Australia Mission (JAM) last week.
From 21-23 February, Tasmania joined 65 Australian tourism organisations at the Tourism Australia-hosted JAM 2008 in Atami, south-west of Tokyo.
A key theme of JAM 2008 was “World Heritage”, with Tasmania pushing its distinct advantage in this area through a series of one-on-one appointments with buyers from across Japan.
“This year we have seen an increase in the number of Japanese tour companies featuring Tasmania’s spectacular and accessible World Heritage-listed wilderness,” Ms Wriedt said.
“Tasmania has bucked the national trend for declining Japanese visitor numbers, 7300 Japanese visitors arrived in Tasmania during the 12 months to September 2007 – a rise of 26.7 per cent.
“As well as raising awareness and knowledge of our State among the trade and media, Tasmania will be looking to establish new partnerships for marketing and sales activities in North East Asia,” Ms Wriedt said.
The Korea Trade Mission started yesterday and concludes on Friday 29 February.