The Second Vice Minister (CHO Yong-man) of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister PARK Bo Gyoon, MCST) will visit the “11^th APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting” in Bangkok, Thailand on August 19 (Fri) to present on the Korea’s strategy on recovering Tourism industry after the Pandemic. After the presentation by the Vice Minister CHO, a joint statement will be adopted for the future tourism for Asia Pacific region.

The APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting was established when Korean government proposed to revitalize the tourism industry in the APEC region during the APEC Summit held in Kuala Lumpur in 1998. Since the launch of the Meeting, the 1^st Meeting was held in Seoul, Korea in 2000 and organizes every two years. This Ministerial Meeting, held four years after the Papua New Guinea Meeting in 2018, will discuss the direction of tourism policy in the Asia Pacific region after COVID-19 under the theme of “Open, Connect, Balance”.

Vice Minister CHO will introduce the strategy expediting Korean Tourism policy after long suffering of the COVID-19. In particular, he will touch upon the following topics: (1) financial support, including tourism fund loan support and repayment deferral, and quarantine support for tourism companies (2) improving domestic travel conditions for market recovery and support for revitalization of tourism in Korea, and (3) measures to respond to environmental changes through digital transformation of the tourism industry. Also, discussions will continue among members on guideline on APEC Tourism Stakeholders, policy recommendation on APEC Future Tourism: Regenerative Tourism to discuss on the ways for tourism policy among member states, and the 11^th APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting Joint Statement will be adopted.  

In addition, CHO will hold separate bilateral meetings with the Thailand’s Minister of Tourism and Sports and the Minister of Tourism of the Philippines to discuss cooperation in tourism exchanges with the two countries. At a meeting with the Thailand Minister, CHO plans to request cooperation for designating 2023-2024 Korea-Thailand Mutual Visit Year. On meeting with the Philippines Minister, the Vice Minister plans to discuss on the implementation plan of the  tourism cooperation signed in 2019 and request the Philippines government for supporting for the bid to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan, Korea (EXPO).

On August 20 (Sat), the Vice Minister will also visit the cultural tourism sites in Thailand. CHO plans to attend the opening ceremony of the 2022 Love Korea Festival held in Bangkok, Thailand, and meet with local travel industry officials to listen to the voices from the  field, which will help revitalizing Thailand’s interests in visiting South Korea.

Vice Minister CHO Yong-man said, "Based on the discussions and voices heard during the APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting, MCST will develop a strategy to accelerate the recovery of the international tourism and pursue shared growth of tourism in the Asia-Pacific region in the post pandemic era.”