Starting today, visitors from South Korea can skip quarantine here if they have a negative COVID test from a trusted partner. These are challenging times for international travel, but tourism organizations in the Asia Pacific are still working on plans for the future.
South Korea is not giving up on attracting visitors.
The government is promoting tourism with a series of videos featuring a sound track of traditional music matched with funky modern dance numbers across half a dozen cities from Seoul to Busan. The original tagline was “Come Visit Korea,” but the Korea Tourism Organization has shifted that message to: “Cheer Up the World and Meet You Later.”
The ad campaign first went online this past summer and at the end of the year won an award at the Tourism Innovation Summit in Spain.
Just search online for “Feel the Rhythm of Korea.”
In Singapore, a group called Dynasty Travel has partnered with tourism boards in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan with a number of projects aimed sparking demand for travel planning.
The common theme — while this may not be an ideal time to hop on a plane, it is a good time to show off highlights for a bit later.
One recent ad showed a chef in West Australia grilling a freshly-caught octopus sizzling over the flames of a local hardwood.
A manager at Tourism Western Australiatold the Straits Times that it’s important to “plant the seed of travel” in various markets for the days when confidence, and international travelers, return in full force.
