Over 1,000 Taiwanese and Hong Kong students visited Korea for school trip

Over 1,000 Taiwanese and Hong Kong students visited Korea for school trip. April. 18, 2017 07:15. by Sung-Min Park min@donga.com.

The Korea Tourism Organization announced on Monday that the number of students from Hong Kong and Taiwan who visited Korea for their field trip between January and April 13 surpassed 1,000. The figure is twice more than last year with 400 during the same period. The state agency expects that about 3,000 Taiwanese and Hong Kong students will visit Korea this year, following 1,407 last year.

School trips for teenagers are highly likely to be a new demand base as schools prefer to visit the same traveling course if their previous trips are satisfactory. “Students, who had a good impression on Korea during their first visit, often visit Korea again when they grow up," the Korea Tourism Organization said. "Attracting school trips of foreign countries helps to secure a stable demand of visiting Korea.”

Beijing has banned Chinese tour groups from visiting South Korea, which led to the decline of tourism industry. The Korea Tourism Organization is now making efforts to attract more school trips from multiple countries to overcome the crisis in sluggish tourism. Thankfully, the number of Japanese students who visited Korea for their field trip increased to 2,800 from the decline since 2012 and it is expected that the number will reach 3,500. “We plan to expand the school trip market based on various approaches such as invitation of educational officials in relating countries, providing customized guide books for the youth, and development of new tour products,” said Park Jeong-ha, chief of foreign marketing unit at the KTO.