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Title Reflection on the 4th 5.4 club gathering- November 18th at Taeroa
Posted by webmaster Hit 22622 Date 2013.11.22

5.4 Club had a 4th gathering at the restaurant 'Taeroa' in Nonhyun-dong; it was the last gathering of the year, where our members get together in gratitude and joy to celebrate the year end together and to wrap up ongoing discussions on Korean tourism.


 

Mrs. Lim Hyang Oak commenced the party with a warm greeting.

 


 

There was new members to this meeting, Mrs. Yuni chung, the CEO of Oliver Sweet.

After the introduction of a new member, Mrs. Choi Jungwha mentioned members with perfect attendance: Mrs. Lee Hye-soon (Dam Yeon) and Mr. Shin Jay Hyuk (CEO and Vice President of Taekwang Industrial Company). Thank you again for your dedication for 5.4 club!

 

Before the dinner, we shared our members' recent good news. We all congratulated Opera Gallery on its outstanding achievement award from the Gangnam-gu Office for featuring a range of tasteful collections, and Sihwadam on being acclaimed by the Recais & chateaux, a prestige association of the world’s finest hoteliers, chefs and restaurateurs that has set the standard for excellence in hospitality.

 

As a side note, Opera Gallery is having an exhibition collaborated with the luxury car brand, Ferrari, on this coming November 21st at 6pm.

 

Mr. Shin Jay Hyuk offered the first toast for dinner, "Let's move forward, 5.4 Club, 5.4 Club, 5.4 Club!"

 

The dinner was thoroughly-prepared with warmth and "honesty" which coincides well with Mrs. Kim Youn Young's food philosophy. Yesterday at dinner, Mrs. Kim shared her beliefs on Korean food, that the Korean food are made with full of love, warmth and honesty!

 

6 members did their "homework" from the last meeting, which was to bring a bottle of wine that would match Korean food. Thank you for your support and care!

 

The 6 wines that would go well with Korean food are: Pomino Bianco Castello Di Pomino brought by Mr. Kim Higgin, President of Byuksan Engineering; 'LAN Rioja,2004' brought by Ms. Kim MinJin the owner chef of Min's Kitchen; 'Chateau de La croix,2006' brought by Mrs. Lee HyeSoon, President of Damyeon; 'Chateau de Cayx,2006' brought by Mr. Shim Jay, Vice President of Taekwang group; 'Chateau Simard,2001' brought by Mr. Kwon Gee Chan, President of Opera Gallery; 'Farnese Edizione' brought by Mr. Kim Yong Gwan, President of Mast Ent.

 

Towards to end of the dinner, the hot debate on the Korean Tourism began. The three topics for discussion was:

 

1)  Chinese and Japanese are main tourists to Korea.  In addition, the continued strain in bilateral relations between Japan and Korea has led the subsequent decline in the number of Japanese tourists to Korea. What is your opinion on dealing with this sharp decline in Japanese visitors?

 

2) According to SIBAC, Seoul plans to provide the Seoul Tour mobile application in 10 languages by 2018. Besides the multi languages, what other items/ aspects of this app need to be supplemented to enhance the user experience?

 

3) There are uncountable festivals going on in Korea every year, and there was about 150 festivals held last year just in Seoul. In your opinion, do you think having many festivals would actually benefit the MICE industry?
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After dinner, there was debate time to share opinions on three topics on Korean tourism. Members all participated actively and shared their own opinions to others.
The minute from yesterday discussion is attached below.
Thank you to all our 54 club members for their active participation and for their near perfect attendance at our gatherings. As always, we will try our best to provide innovative and meaningful opportunities to share our ideas on promoting Korea as effectively as possible.

Lastly, a big thank you to Yoon Young Kim, President of Taeroa for her generous support for the evening, and to Hyang-ok Lim for her amazing interpretation during the gathering.



1) Chinese and Japanese are main tourists to Korea.  In addition, the continued strain in bilateral relations between Japan and Korea has led the subsequent decline in the number of Japanese tourists to Korea. What is your opinion on dealing with this sharp decline in Japanese visitors?

Mark Chung, President of KCMI 


 

The political tension between Korea and Japan will be smoothen someday. Once the political issues are solved, those Japanese tourists who initially turned away from Korea will visit the country. From cultural and entertainment perspective, it is important to creative a product/musical/jazz concert etc that's only available in Korea or something that only Koreans can produce. Korea should provide a uniquely Korean experience for tourists. Something that is authentically Korean in which tourists can remember and can bring to their home countries and share about.

Peter Walshaw, GM ofGrand Hyatt Seoul 


It seems that the number of Japanese tourists has decreased due to political issues between the two countries. Korea is a short-distance travel destination for Japanese, and the number of Japanese tourists has also decreased in Saipan and Guam, the other short-distance travel destinations of Japan. There is a cycle of tourists. For Korea, at the moment, the number of Chinese tourists is on the increasing side, while the number of Japanese tourists is on the decreasing side. The Chinese market has a huge potential and China is close to Korea. For instance, Chinese visit Jeju for fresh air, and visit Seoul to shop. Abating the travel visa process for Chinese is a way to sustain this continual rate of increasing Chinese tourists. The cycle of tourists goes around. We need to prepare and be ready for the peak season of tourists of different nations.

Didier Beltoise, President of Cs 

 

Political tension between the two countries (Korea and Japan) is something to be overcome. Currently, there is the Korea-Japan squabbles, but we need to approach and find solution differently. Let's take Bali as an example. There was a terror attack in Bali; the number of tourists of course had decreased consequently. However over time, Bali created attractive festivals, exhibitions, and cultural events which in turn moved cosmopolitan to change their impression on Bali. Like what Mr. Mark Chung said, we need to create something that is uniquely Korean.

Yoon-young Kim,President of Yongsusan

In general, Japanese are polite and have good public manners. On the other hand, I find Korean to be somewhat lacking in public manners. If we behave more kindly and with public etiquettes, Japanese will feel more comfortable and will like our country more. We need to be friends.

Kay Kang,Director of Kong du

I agree with Mrs. Kim Yoon-young's thoughts. To give a practical suggestion, when I visited Yonsei University Hospital, Japanese fans were visiting Korea just to see the Korean actors and actresses from their favorite Korean soap opera. These Japanese tourists visited Korea, solely because they were moved by the Korean drama and wanted to find connections between the drama and themselves. We need to create content that could move the world citizens. K-drama would be one good medium to promote our culture to the world.

Mathieu Perrisuttie, Coree Affaires


We need to stop focusing on the political concerns. For example, in Europe, people did not have much interest in Korea back in few years ago. However, young people these days are getting more interested in Korean culture. We need to do what we can do. Find something we can excel at, and develop it. Korea is a country with full of potential. These days, young Londoners, Parisians, Milanese, they all love Korea. Now, it is time to target a new market.

Didier Beltoise, President of Cs

There is a saying "don't put all your eggs in one basket." Although the Japanese market is declining, we need to not fear, but look into different markets like China. Yet, China is not the only solution; thus, we need to diversify future target markets.

Yong won Choe, President of club Octagon

Political reason played a big part in the decrease of Japanese tourists. Few years ago, Japan was asked to apologize to Korea by former president Lee. This roused antipathy from Japanese towards Korea. I think we need to solve political issues urgently.

Yeosoon Yoon, President of Lg Arts Center

Europe is becoming more interested in Korea. We need to find new approaches as to how to increase the Korean tourism industry. We need to differentiate marketing strategies based on gender, nationality, age, etc. Every culture is different. We need to prepare different marketing strategies for each country. Also, we need more research on inter-relationships between countries.

Jay Shim, Vice President of Taekwang group


Korea needs to target new tourism source markets like the U.S. and Europe. If tourists from other nations have good impression on Korea, conversely, Japanese may return to Korea for travel.

2) According to SIBAC, Seoul plans to provide the Seoul Tour mobile application in 10 languages by 2018. Besides the multi languages, what other items/ aspects of this app need to be supplemented to enhance the user experience?


 


KiTaek Jung, GM of Gonjiam Resort

 

When visiting Thailand for my summer vacation, I downloaded an app for travel information. The app was quite vivid, but had no content. When creating mobile apps, having useful content is essential; information needs to be up to date.

 

3) There are uncountable festivals going on in Korea every year, and there was about 150 festivals held last year just in Seoul. In your opinion, do you think having many festivals would actually benefit the MICE industry?

 

Yong guan Kim, Presidnet of Mast Engertainment


 

I am not exactly sure what those 150 festivals in Seoul were.  As a profession in the Entertainment industry, I do not think tourists come to Korea to attend the festivals. In the past, Japanese visited to Korea because things were cheap in Korea. But now, due to decrease in Yen, and inflation rate in Korea, the number of Japanese visitors has decreased. That could be interpreted as, Korea is not an attractive country to visit if it is not affordable. We need to create contents to bring more tourists to Korea. As mentioned before, K-drama is one content; now it's time to develop more contents that could represent Korea. There was an event held in Songdo, Incheon. A lot of Japanese tourists visited the event to see Korean celebrities. However, when the event finished at very late night, there was no transportation available to bring the tourists back to Seoul. Taxi was the only option, and the taxi fare was ridiculously expensive. We need to think about infrastructure and the overall picture when creating a content.

 

Hye Soon Lee, President of Damyeon


 Korea, Japan and China share a common denominator; they are similar in lots of ways. However, the three cultures are vastly different as well.

Bernhard Brender, GM of Grand Hilton Seoul


Having festivals definitely help the MICE industry; and the fact that Seoul had held 150 festivals last year is a great accomplishment. However, we need to think for future. Korea is awakening. 12 million visitors to Korea is a great accomplishment.

Yoon-young Kim,President of Yongsusan


Korean people love to sing and to dance. Looking back, 2002 World Cup was a festival. There are so many festivals these days, but i am not really sure what they are. We need to create festivals, in which global citizens can recognize and enjoy. Hypothetically, if we have a good Samba Party in Asia, then people in Asia may not have to travel to the other side of the globe to enjoy the Samba festival. We need to create an international festival.

Ki Chang Kwon, President of Opera Gallery


Chinese tourists are now No. 1 in Korea. Chinese tourists to Korea outnumbered Japanese tourists for the first time. KTO estimated that by 2020, there will be 10 million Chinese tourists visiting Korea. However, I think, in three years, the 10 million tourists will be reached. Chinese tourists don't visit Korea to attend the festivals. In fact, it is mostly local people who attend those festivals in Seoul. Chinese tourists mainly visit Korea for shopping. We need to think, what information do foreigners come across when they learn, hear or search about Korea? Certainly, those 150 festivals weren't the major reasons why tourists visit Korea.

Didier Beltoise, President of Cs


I would like to ask to everyone: what festival comes to your mind when you think of Seoul? None. Busan Film Festival is now set in stone. To take an example from an international city, Montreal is a good example of a city of festivals. The city has many recognized cultural, film and music festivals (Just For Laughs, Montreal Jazz Festival, and others). Montreal had economic difficulty in the early 90s but cleverly used arts as a tool to recover and improve its economy.

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