South Korea keen on Vietnam tourists

      The increasing number of Vietnamese visitors to South Korea is making the eastern Asian country to target Vietnam as a potential market, with many South Korean tour operators already launching promotions to entice more travelers from the Southeast Asian nation.
Hyo Sik Jeon, director of the South Korean Tourism Promotion Office to Asia Pacific, was speaking of this market trend at a meeting in Seoul on Monday with tourism companies, airlines and reporters from Vietnam.
Jeon said that to attract the Vietnamese travelers, many South Korean tour operators were bringing out promotion programs with products tailored to the Vietnamese market and working with Korean foreign affairs agencies over ways to quicken visa procedures for Vietnamese tourists.
According to the Korean tourism promotion agency, Korea saw some 18,000 Vietnamese tourist arrivals and around 20,000 Koreans visited Vietnam last year.
Vo Anh Tai, director of the Saigontourist Travel Service Company, said the company was organizing tours to South Korea with prices slashed by up to 40% under a promotion program launched by the company, Vietnam Airlines and South Korean partners.
“From January 17, we teamed up with the national flag carrier and partners in South Korea to arrange special package tours with prices down by 30-40% from normal rates,” Tai said, adding the promotion was aimed at diversifying tourism products.
For example, the price for a six-day tour to Seoul from either HCMC or Hanoi is down to US$911 from the previous US$1,600, and that for a four-day tour to Seoul to US$699 from the previous US$1,000.
Saigontourist said it served some 500 Vietnamese travelers to Korea in April. Especially, the number of tourists from Hanoi traveling to Korea has started to increase strongly with some 100 tourists reported in April.
Saigontourist said it was launching many IKO Travel and Premium Travel tours to Korea departing from either HCMC or Hanoi.