Korea Tourism Organization partners with Southeast Asian firms to draw more visitors

Korea’s national tourism agency has secured major promotional agreements with leading Southeast Asian online travel platforms, airlines and financial institutions as part of an aggressive push to convert growing regional interest in Korean culture into actual travel bookings. The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) said Monday that President Park Sung-hyeuck led a delegation to Jakarta and Manila from Tuesday to Saturday to expand the country’s footprint in Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing outbound travel markets. The sales drive comes as tourism from the region surges. Visitor arrivals from Indonesia reached 330,629 through September, a 23.4 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the Philippines remains Korea’s top source of tourists in Southeast Asia, with arrivals rising 15.6 percent year-over-year following a record 615,141 visitors last year. To capitalize on the momentum, the agency signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday with Traveloka, Southeast Asia’s dominant online travel agency. Leveraging Traveloka’s commercial network across f