Transformed into the 'Global City Tourism Promotion Organization' ... Asia-Pacific City Tourism Promotion Organization

'Global City Tourism Promotion Organization' Applied from This Year

Expanded Global Activity Scope, Busan as a Global Hub City Increased

Busan City announced that from 2024, the name of the 'Asia-Pacific City Tourism Promotion Organization' will be changed to the 'Global City Tourism Promotion Organization (TPO)'.

The 11th TPO General Assembly (September 12-15, 2023, Jeonju).

The 'Global City Tourism Promotion Organization' aims to expand its scope of activities and exchanges beyond the Asia-Pacific region to the entire world. This is interpreted as an appropriate transformation of the organization reflecting the international trend of increasingly close exchange and cooperation.

TPO (Chairman Mayor Park Hyung-jun) was established in 2002 by the mayors of 25 Asia-Pacific cities at the 5th Asian-Pacific City Summit (APCS) held in Fukuoka, Japan.

Busan was a key player in the founding of TPO and currently plays an important role as the TPO chair city. The TPO Secretariat, an international organization aimed at promoting tourism and mutual exchange among cities, is located in Buk-gu, Busan.

The change of the TPO organization’s name was decided at the 11th TPO General Assembly held in Jeonju last September and will be applied starting this year. This change is interpreted not merely as a renaming but as a commitment by TPO to strengthen cooperation among members and collaborate for sustainable tourism development as an international organization.

Marking its 20th anniversary, the TPO Secretariat reviewed its achievements and announced the ‘TPO Vision 2050’ in August 2022 for future progressive advancement. This vision includes recommendations to expand TPO’s scope of activities.

Considering these factors comprehensively, the 11th TPO General Assembly (September 2023, Jeonju) finalized the change of the organization’s name from ‘Asia-Pacific City Tourism Promotion Organization’ to ‘Global City Tourism Promotion Organization’.

This name change marks the first step in implementing the ‘TPO Vision 2050’. Going forward, the Global City Tourism Promotion Organization plans to expand exchange and cooperation with cities in Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.

Furthermore, TPO is expected to significantly contribute to Busan’s leap as a ‘Global Hub City’, the new vision for Busan in 2024 and a growth axis leading the future of the Republic of Korea.

In particular, this year, preparations are underway to hold the 42nd TPO Executive Committee meeting in Busan in the first half of the year in connection with the ‘Busan International Tourism City Forum’. Various TPO projects, including cultural experience programs and talent development programs with high participation from foreign members, will be promoted in close cooperation with the city.

2023 Korea Regional Conference.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun, the TPO chairman, stated, “In addition to joint projects, TPO will continuously strive to provide better services to tourists from member countries through various meetings such as the General Assembly, Executive Committee, and country-specific regional meetings (Korea, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia).” He added, “We will fulfill our role to contribute to the development of the tourism industry and, ultimately, to regional peace.”

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