The 3rd Busan International Travel Mart Held... Rapid Reconstruction and Expansion of the Local Tourism Market

1st Busan International Travel Week until the 14th, B2B Business Exchange Event with Buyers from 15 Countries Worldwide

Promoting Global Tourism Exchange and Rapid Tourism Market Recovery, Seeking Diversification of Tourism Markets Including China

Busan City and the Busan Tourism Organization are hosting the "3rd Busan International Travel Mart" at BEXCO until the 14th, conducting activities for the development of Busan tourism products and business exchanges in preparation for the full-scale expansion of the tourism market.

The promotional poster for the 1st Busan International Travel Week (BITW).

The "Busan International Travel Mart," now in its third year and part of the 1st International Travel Week, is hosted by Busan City and organized by the Busan Tourism Organization.

Starting with the opening ceremony and business-to-business (B2B) consultation meeting on the 12th, familiarization tours introducing Busan's diverse tourist attractions to overseas buyers will be held over two days from the 13th to the 14th.

This event is a large-scale B2B event involving over 200 companies, including 100 overseas buyers from 15 countries?covering key markets such as Greater China, Japan, and new southern countries, as well as potential markets in Western countries?and 86 domestic sellers. The focus is on the rapid rebuilding and expansion of tourism market networks following COVID-19.

For China, which had only participated online until now, 17 travel agencies are attending this event in person to interact with domestic sellers, creating an opportunity to accelerate the attraction of Chinese tourists (Yukeo) in line with the recent lifting of group tour restrictions.

Additionally, the new participation of Western countries such as the UK and Germany is expected to provide an opportunity to diversify the tourism market by pioneering potential markets.

At the opening ceremony on the 12th, which announced the Travel Mart event, a Busan tourism briefing actively promoted the charm and new content of Busan tourism. Approximately 700 business consultations were conducted by matching overseas buyers and domestic sellers one-on-one, covering the provision and promotion of Busan tourism information, as well as the development and sales of Busan tourism products.

Through this large-scale B2B event, tangible results are expected in expanding overseas business and network formation for the Busan tourism industry, contributing to the rapid recovery of the local tourism market and revitalization of the tourism industry, which had been stagnant due to COVID-19.

In particular, Busan City made efforts to establish strategies for practical contracts in the local tourism industry by negotiating a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to attract 10,000 tourists with overseas sending agencies during this event.

Busan City and the Busan Tourism Organization are working to create measures that allow overseas buyers’ actual tourist recruitment and product contracts to be directly connected with local businesses rather than global online travel agencies (OTA) or metropolitan travel agencies.

Accordingly, MOA agreements were signed with 20 travel agencies from six countries, agreeing to directly attract a total of 10,000 tourists in 2024.

The MOA provides incentives based on the number of tourists recruited when selling products of Busan inbound travel agencies to overseas sending agencies. The total sales generated through this are expected to reach approximately 15 billion KRW, and considering advertising and other ripple effects, the figure is anticipated to be even higher, which is warmly welcomed by the Busan tourism industry.

This year, Busan City successfully held the "1st Busan International Travel Week," linking the Travel Mart with the International Tourism Exhibition, as a B2BC-type mega event centered on businesses and consumers, with participation from 465 companies across 52 countries and 45,000 visitors. It is expected to continue establishing itself as a representative global tourism exchange event befitting Busan as an international tourism city.

The 24th Busan International Tourism Fair Opening Ceremony, Event Venue Scene.

The Busan International Tourism Exhibition, held at BEXCO from October 5 to 8 for four days, featured participation from 265 organizations across 37 countries, operating 408 booths that shared global tourism trends, including domestic and international tourism promotion halls, a special hall for tourism venture companies, and the Busan local brand zone.

Additionally, popular travel YouTubers from Busan, GwakTube and Chaekoje, held a "Talk Concert," and Moon Heon-gwan, a world champion barista from the coffee city Busan, gave a special lecture, providing an intimate approach and promotion of the Busan tourism industry. These diverse programs attracted about 45,000 visitors, successfully concluding the event.

Park Geun-rok, Director of the Tourism MICE Bureau, stated, "With the full-scale reopening of the tourism market, we will expand global tourism exchanges to quickly rebuild the tourism market and focus on diversification. We will promote policies so that the local tourism industry can operate in a favorable environment in Busan and work together with the industry to strengthen tourist attraction efforts."

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