KE's Sunhye Kim & Jennifer Jung; Eliot Kim, Joyful Holiday & KNTO's NJ Park
Douglas Yiu, KE; Jenny Soares, ChinaPac; Firmy Chu, Jade Tours; Rosana Loo,
Silk Holidays & Anders Shuen, Jade Tours
Quiz prize winners Jacqueline Waite &
Anne Bird from North South Travel
Despite the outrageous threats being hurled their way by their crazy neighbour to the north, our hosts were in top spirits. They were not about to let any thermo nuclear rhetoric dampen their spirits or the buzz that PSY’s Gangnam Style hype has delivered over the past year.
But it wasn’t all horse dancing at the KTO’s and KE’s recent function at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown, guests were introduced to the interesting repertoire of the traditional Korean kayagum (zither-like) instrument in concert with violins, cello and trumpet.
Outgoing KTO Director NJ Park (returning to Korea in May) proclaimed a big thank you to partners for helping Korea achieve a milestone in total arrivals for 2012. The destination received 11.1 million (+13.7%) visitors worldwide. Canada was ranked the 4th largest long-haul market with 128,000 travellers, a 5.1% increase over the previous year.
And despite what’s happening over in North Korea, locals are unfazed and Park says that tourism facilities continue to operate as usual.
As an overview of the destination, Randy Snape, KTO’s Marketing Manger stressed that agents must add the unique temple stays and samplings of Korean cuisine (it’s the new it food, he says) to their itineraries.
On the topic of food, the evening’s dinner buffet comprised kimchi dishes, stir fried Chinese mushrooms with glass noodles, creamed salmon and steak au jus, plus a very well stocked bar. A little east-west fusion to add to the frisson. For entertainment, the musicians rendered several pieces including the Rainbow Connection, “it’s the song by Kermit the Frog,” someone offered quite loudly.
LAX based Korean Air’s Sr. Team Manager – Passenger Marketing, Jennifer Jung got agents excited about the airline’s relatively new “Excellent Boarding Pass” program. It offers pax discounts at attractions, restaurants, shopping malls and transportation. New destinations for this year are CMB and MLE. From June to September, KE will be adding 2 additional flights between YVR and ICN bringing their service to 7 flights per week. For the YYZ-ICN route, the 5 times weekly flights have been increased to daily thru 26OCT.
It was a fun evening filled with quizzes and of course, the always popular lucky draws. Agents went home with a wide range of prizes including day trip packages, pearl inlay jewelry boxes and complete DVD sets of popular Korean TV serials.
