2020 Winter Travel Peak Season Preparation, Government-Travel Industry Safety Meeting Held

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 14th, the government held a meeting with the travel industry chaired by Lee Sang-jin, Director of the Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs Office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to prepare for the peak winter travel season and shared key safety information for Korean overseas travelers, including precautions related to the eruption of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines.

The meeting was attended by officials from the Office for Government Policy Coordination, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Korea Customs Service, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, as well as representatives from travel agencies including the Korea Association of Travel Agents.

In his opening remarks, Director Lee introduced measures to protect Korean nationals amid recent instability in the Middle East, including △the establishment of a task force led by the First Vice Minister △video conferences with diplomatic missions in the Middle East △safety meetings with Korean business representatives in Iraq. He also requested cooperation from travel industry officials to ensure that Korean nationals do not visit travel-restricted countries such as Iraq and Libya, where the current situation is unstable, without prior government approval as required by the Passport Act.

Furthermore, Director Lee stated, "At the point one year before the enforcement of the Consular Assistance Act for the protection of overseas nationals, we are working to establish subordinate legislation such as enforcement ordinances and rules within this year to provide a foundation for our citizens to receive more systematic and stable consular assistance based on the law."

During the meeting, the government explained various precautions for safe overseas travel, including △recent international terrorism trends and Middle East situation △regional situation related to Africa △recent overseas incidents and implications △current status and prevention guidelines for overseas infectious diseases △introduction of next-generation electronic passports △safety guidelines related to livestock infectious diseases such as African swine fever. The government also urged the travel industry to actively cooperate by timely providing necessary safety information to travelers to raise their safety awareness and prevent incidents and accidents.

Meanwhile, travel industry representatives attending the meeting expressed gratitude for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government agencies’ prompt response to various incidents and accidents experienced by Korean nationals during overseas travel, and proposed that the government continue to share safety information in a timely manner.

An official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained, "The government and the travel industry agreed to continuously strengthen cooperation between the government and the travel industry to ensure the safe overseas travel of our nationals."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.