Gyeonggi Province and Four Other Metropolitan Cities and Provinces to Promote Capital Region Tourism Activation

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hoon Reporter] The Capital Region Tourism Promotion Council, consisting of five cities and provinces including Gyeonggi Province, Seoul, Incheon, Gangwon, and North Chungcheong, is promoting joint tourism promotion projects in preparation for the tourism recovery period following COVID-19.

The Capital Region Tourism Promotion Council is a consultative body established in 1999 to promote tourism activation and mutually beneficial development in the capital region, and has pursued joint tourism promotion projects annually. Five cities and provinces share 50 million won in project costs each year, and operate on a rotating basis; this year is the year when Gyeonggi Province is taking the lead.

Accordingly, to promote capital region integrated promotion that had stalled due to the COVID-19 situation last year, the province plans to focus on various social media marketing utilizing foreign influencers residing in Korea.

As for offline activities, the province will operate a joint capital region promotion pavilion in connection with the Seoul International Tourism Industry Expo, and will conduct active marketing by holding capital region briefing sessions and familiarization tours targeting participating buyers.

In the second half of the year, assuming that the COVID-19 situation will recover, the province is planning local marketing in the Middle East market targeting Abu Dhabi and Dubai to develop high-value emerging markets, and is also preparing alternatives such as shifting to online briefing sessions if overseas business operations become difficult.

Additionally, through research on activation in preparation for post-COVID conditions, the province plans to discover common themes and new projects spanning the five cities and provinces, and to actively work on laying the foundation for capital region tourism activation following COVID-19.

Choi Yong-hun, Director of the Gyeonggi Province Tourism Division, said, "The more difficult the circumstances, the more necessary it is to strengthen sustainable cooperation systems between local governments," and added, "We will make efforts to raise the integrated awareness of the five cities and provinces in preparation for the post-COVID tourism recovery period and to achieve maximum synergistic effects through mutual cooperation."