Korea’s rise atop RP’s travel chart

Korea’s rise as the Philippines’ top source of foreign tourists didn’t just happen.

To Korean travel agent Ki Tae Kim, it was a long and arduous task that began in 1989.

“At that time, very few Koreans knew about the Philippines,” Kim recalls.

“I would conduct a slide presentation to a group of 15 ladies during the day and another group of 15 men in the evening after office hours. I would show them Boracay, Cebu, Bohol, El Nido, Club Paradise, and even Dakak in Mindanao.”

Humbly, Kim narrated how he went from office to office with his slide projector just to show the beautiful images of the Philippines to prospective clients.

“Even as early as 1989, I already felt that the Philippines was an ideal place for Koreans to visit or take their families for a vacation. So I waited for long hours till my clients found the time for my presentation,” Kim adds.

Eighteen years later, Kim, this time as president of Philippine Airlines in Korea, enjoys the support of the Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT) and members of the country’s tourism industry.

It began in 2001 when he co-sponsored with the DOT the first sales mission of Filipino marketing executives to Seoul. The mission was so successful that it became a yearly event since then.

Now on its sixth year, the just-concluded 2007 sales mission had 41 delegates from the private sector and three from the DOT.  Region VII Director Dawnie Roa, project manager Gwendolyn Batoon and Team Korea head Pam Samaniego. The private sector delegates represented various tourism establishments in Manila, Cebu, Bohol, Boracay, Palawan, and Davao, among others.

Thus, Kim no longer has to do it all alone. Most importantly, he is now reaping the benefits of his pioneering efforts, with Korean arrivals reaching 572,133 to top the Philippines’ list of foreign tourists last year.

The influx of Korean tourists continues, generating demand that necessitates a corresponding increase in PAL flights between the two countries.

“Starting December, PAL will increase its flights to Cebu from Seoul to four a day. And starting January, direct flights from Jeju to Manila will commence,“ Kim reveals.

The flight increase is quite an urgent necessity. The first three quarters of the current year saw Korean arrivals posting a whopping 16.3 percent growth from 406,480 to 472,711 on the way to the DOT Team Korea’s full-year target of 600,000.

“Korean arrivals now account for a huge 20.9 percent of the total Philippines inbound travel, followed by USA with 19.1 percent and Japan 13.4 percent,” says Tourism Attache Maricon Basco-Ebron in her speech at the opening of the sales mission in Seoul.

At the sidelines of the sales pitches during the mission, Ebron bared in an interview the marketing efforts that brought Korean arrivals to its phenomenal scale.

The turning point came in 2004 when Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano took over the helm of the DOT and organized it into country marketing teams, each with its own market-specific strategies and objectives. Like the other teams, Team Korea had to identify its priority market segments and match them with the appropriate product mix, which made us come out with our eight anchor destinations.

“In the case of Korea, we are now capitalizing on our pretty strong grip of our priority market segments — holiday seekers, honeymooners, students, and special interest groups — to expand our coverage to both ends of the market spectrum,” Ebron says.

“All these involve a menu of complementing marketing activities that are calculated to generate demand and warrant a corresponding increase in airline seats and tourism investments to beef up the supply side. The DOT-PAL sales mission, university campus road shows, and various other marketing events are examples of such activities that enhance our market presence and visibility, invigorate our tourism brand, and develop new markets,“ adds Ebron.

“It (marketing) isn’t just about promoting a brand as a matter of routine. You’ve got to be very sensitive to the market, particularly the emerging consumer preferences, industry practice, and many other subtle nuances of the trade. One must be fast, innovative and should know the market trends. Thus, your work program must be enhanced year after year if you want to be ahead of the competition,“ Ebron points out.

All these activities, however, require a lot of hard work and vision, which Kim knows only too well.