Catch the Big-Spending Chinese Tourists! ... Busan City Launches Full-Scale Attraction Campaign

Busan Tourism Organization Drives Aggressive Attraction Strategy
Promotions Including VisitBusan Pass Linked with Chinese Online Travel Agencies Underway

Busan City and the Busan Tourism Organization (President Lee Jeong-sil) are making every effort to attract Chinese group tourists as group tourism from China has officially resumed since the 10th.

Busan City Hall.

The Chinese government announced that it will allow group travel for its citizens to 78 countries worldwide, including South Korea, the United States, and Japan.

China was the top tourism market for visitors to Busan before COVID-19, and the city has been steadily conducting various promotions and marketing campaigns using Chinese media to attract individual tourists in line with the resumption of tourism after the pandemic.

In the first half of this year, Busan City and the Tourism Organization focused on hosting local events in China exclusively for Busan and selling Busan tourism products, which received positive responses locally, enhancing the Busan brand. They have achieved concrete results by directly supporting the regional tourism industry through practical marketing efforts.

First, they promoted inbound tourism jointly with the Korea Tourism Organization’s Guangzhou, Qingdao, and Wuhan offices and utilized various networks by participating in expos in Wuhan and Chongqing and Korea-China travel industry exchange consultations to showcase Busan’s appeal.

Most notably, in April and May, Busan exclusively conducted an online promotion themed around Busan’s spring flowers, and in June, they held a Busan-only local promotional campaign targeting major Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou). They also carried out sales of Busan tourism products in collaboration with China’s largest online travel agency, conducting aggressive promotional activities even during a period when tourism exchanges between the two countries were difficult.

Especially, the Busan-themed street created in Shanghai’s “Waitan Fengjing” attracted 131,000 visitors and recorded 900 million exposures in local Chinese media.

They also took an aggressive sales approach beyond previous participation in tourism briefings. A live commerce broadcast was held on Ctrip, China’s largest online travel agency, selling 70 types of Busan tourism products, generating 23,000 transactions and 7.5 billion KRW in sales. The broadcast recorded 9.6 million real-time viewers.

Busan City and the Tourism Organization plan to continue sustained sales and promotions through a Busan landing page opened on Ctrip until July next year.

Additionally, they have been continuously promoting through media. Since last year, they have maintained a strategic partnership with the Chinese state-run media People’s Daily Online to consistently deliver news about Busan to the local Chinese audience.

In June, they invited broadcasters from four major provinces (Hubei, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong) to produce a special Busan travel program, which aired in July.

The lifting of restrictions on Chinese group tourism is expected to serve as a major catalyst for the recovery of the Busan tourism market. Busan City and the Tourism Organization plan to make every effort to prepare for welcoming a large number of visitors in addition to existing efforts.

In April, they laid the groundwork for attracting group tourists by signing business agreements with several travel agencies, including China Youth Travel Service and MyTour Travel Agency, two of China’s top three travel agencies.

Currently, with the allowance of group tourists, they plan to provide a Busan arrival incentive (700 million KRW) to overseas outbound travel agencies and travel agencies in the metropolitan area to actively attract 15,000 tourists to Busan.

In October, they will invite 15 tourism companies, including Chinese travel agencies, to the 3rd Busan International Travel Mart, which will be held on the largest scale ever, to develop Busan tourism products and promote business creation with the local tourism industry.

Starting next week, in collaboration with Ctrip, they plan to run a promotion offering a 20% discount on the Visit Busan Pass as a special benefit for Chinese tourists. They will also launch airline ticket and hotel discount promotions linked with WeChat, China’s largest messenger, aiming to directly attract more than 10,000 visitors.

Furthermore, they will participate in the Korea Tourism Organization’s Shanghai K-Tourism Roadshow scheduled for September, as well as the Beijing and Shanghai Travel Marts, where they will hold exclusive sales calls targeting local travel agencies in Beijing and Shanghai.

A city official stated, “Busan is an attractive tourist city that has gained global attention, being selected as the ‘Best Travel Destination of 2023’ by National Geographic and ‘Star of Korean Tourism 2022.’ As the tourism market revitalizes, we are expanding the scope of promotional marketing through exclusive local events and direct sales of tourism products.”

“We will also prepare solid promotional activities to showcase new tourist destinations and diverse content that have changed since COVID-19 to Chinese tourists visiting Busan, allowing them to fully experience the charm of Busan,” the official added.

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