'Focus on Attracting Group Tours from China' Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism & Korea Tourism Organization Hold Qingdao MICE Roadshow

The First Major MICE Event Immediately After the Resumption of Group Visas

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 6th that they successfully held the '2023 Qingdao MICE Roadshow' at the Qingdao Haichen Hotel in Qingdao, China.

On-site photos of the MICE Roadshow held in Qingdao, China.
[Photo by Korea Tourism Organization]

This event is the first large-scale MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) event held in China since China fully lifted restrictions on group tours to Korea last month.

Shandong Province, where Qingdao is located, is close to Korea and has numerous flights and ferry routes operating to major Korean cities, making transportation convenient. Many headquarters of key client companies are located within Shandong Province, making it advantageous for attracting corporate meetings and incentive groups.

The organization introduced Korea’s MICE support programs and major tourist attractions during business consultations and MICE briefings, and held sales and networking sessions aimed at attracting group tours.

About 50 participants from approximately 20 domestic local governments, RTOs, travel agencies, and Korea Unique Venue took part in the event. They conducted over 380 meetings with more than 150 local stakeholders.

In particular, the organization invited corporate and travel agency representatives who had visited Korea with large groups before the pandemic to deliver a welcome message for revisiting Korea and discuss support plans. This is a strategic move to focus on attracting medium to large groups of over 500 people.

Seo Young-chung, Director of the International Tourism Headquarters at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, "The KTO Qingdao office cooperated with major travel agencies in Shandong Province in 2019 to attract about 37,000 Chinese corporate meetings and incentive group visitors. We will make every effort to restore industry networks early through active sales and to proactively secure new demand."

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