Macau and Korean travel trade conducting businesses at travel mart
Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) is organizing this week its annual promotional highlights in Korea to meet trade, public and media. MGTO is heading a delegation with a record number of travel trade participants from Macau and for the first time the promotion will be extended to Gwangju, in tandem with Seoul and Busan. Korea is the city’s top international visitor source market after Greater China and one of the most promising ones to diversify the city’s visitor source markets. MGTO Deputy Director Cecilia Tse is in Korea to preside over the promotional events, accompanied by the head of Destination Marketing Department, Betty Fok, and the head of Marketing Division, Cora Vong, along with Macau travel trades, representing 30 tourism related companies, namely hotels, travel agencies, convention and exhibition venues and transportation companies. The program of the annual promotion includes Macau Travel Marts in Seoul, Gwangju and Busan, a dinner with Korean tourism executives, an art exhibition about Macau, among others. Macau through Korean artists’ perspective Cecilia Tse, accompanied by MGTO and Macau Travel trade representatives, opened today (22) in Seoul the exhibition “Touching Moments in Macau through Artists' Perspective” at Ganainsa Art Centre, with works of Korean contemporary artists offering a new angle for Korean public to see Macau. The display presents Macau-inspired works by six renowned Korean artists, following their visit to the city, in January this year. The displayed artists are: the sculptor Byungjoo Kim, the videographer and photographer Sehwan Roh, the painter and sculptor Heeseop Park, the painters Kangwook Lee, Dongjae Lee and SueJin Chung. The exhibition is curated by Heekyung Kang, the chief-executive-officer of Gana Art Park, a prestigious institution dedicated to enhance the artistic environment in Korea. “We have shown Macau on television, magazines, newspapers, through photos, design and so forth. I have to stress that contemporary art is our very first attempt in Korea. Especially, the collaboration with such acclaimed Korean artists has a very special meaning. As the title of the exhibition says, the art works will provide a brand new point of view to experience Macau”, Cecilia Tse said at the opening. Macau Travel Marts in Seoul, Gwangju and Busan The Macau Travel Mart in Seoul and a press conference were held yesterday at the Korean capital. At the meeting with the press, Cecilia Tse noted that “for the seventh consecutive year, we are organizing in Seoul and Busan our big annual promotion, this time in a more extensive scale including one more city, Gwangju, to match the growing interest of Koreans about Macau, and the great potential we see for further growth.” The Macau Travel Mart in Seoul was joined by around 160 Korean travel trades for conducting businesses with its Macau counterparts. The program of the travel mart included an update presentation about new tourism complexes slated to open soon in Macau. Also in Seoul, on Monday MGTO hosted a dinner, where Cecilia Tse met a group of Korean travel trade executives, including the leaders of Korea Association of Travel Agents, airlines and major travel agencies. On Thursday, MGTO officials and Macau travel trade representatives will be in Gwangju, Korea 's third largest city in the western region of the country, to meet around 50 Gwangju counterparts for business contacts and a luncheon reception. On Friday, DST representatives and Macau tourism operators will be in Busan, Korea’s second largest city, where around 80 guests are expected for the Macau Travel Mart, followed by a dinner reception. Good performance of Korea market Last year, Korea achieved the landmark of becoming Macau’s first international market to surpass half million in terms of visitor arrivals, after Greater China (Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). Korea is currently Macau’s top international visitor source market, and fourth largest visitor source market, after Mainland of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Macau welcomed in 2014 more than 554 thousand visitors from Korea, a 16.9 per cent year-on-year increase. This year, the Korean market is having a good start, in the first two months of the year, visitor arrivals increased 12 per cent, to more than 125 thousand visitors, compared to the same period in 2014. Air links between Korea and Macau have also kept on increasing to the current 22 flights a week.
