On 8 June 2018, the ASEAN-Korea Tourism Investment Seminar was successfully held in Seoul, Korea. The seminar was organized by ASEAN-Korea Centre (AKC) and supported by ASEAN Secretariat, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST), Korea Tourism Organization, the Korea Economic Daily and World Bank Group. H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) and H.E. Mr. Masataka Fujita, Secretary General of ASEAN-Japan Centre (AJC) attended the seminar.

In recent years, the exchanges and cooperation between ASEAN and China, Japan and Korea in tourism and related fields has continuously strengthened. Tourism has played a more and more important pillar role in the economic and social development of all sides. During the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2018 (ATF 2018) held in Chiang Mai, Thailand on January 2018, ASEAN National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) expressed appreciation for the efforts made by China, Japan and Korea in promoting the development of regional tourism and the development of related industries driven by tourism, affirmed the work of ACC, AJC and AKC, and hoped that the three centres would play a greater role in promoting tourism investment and resource development between ASEAN and China, Japan and Korea. AKC actively followed up the proposal by ASEAN NTOs and hoped that this seminar would contribute to the promotion of regional tourism and related industrial development and further deepen cooperation between ASEAN and China, Japan and Korea in the field of tourism investment.

The seminar, themed with “Tourism Investment Partnership for a Sustainable Future”, brought together persons in charge of tourism resources development and investment from World Bank group and ASEAN NTOs as well as representatives from relevant industries from Korea, to have in-depth analysis on tourism resources with ASEAN characteristics, briefed on their respective tourism investment policies, shared best practices in tourism investment, and discussed on ways to better enrich tourism products in terms of types and contents. The representatives from ASEAN and Korean tourism industry also actively engaged in B2B negotiation to explore opportunities for business cooperation.

The seminar was held in conjunction with the 12th Hana Tour International Travel Show in Seoul. As the largest annual tourism exhibition in Korea, the travel show has accumulated rich experience in the area of market coverage, market operation, tourism products sales and accessory products promotion. It has high popularity and has attracted many tourism enterprises, hotels, airlines and tourism service providers from various countries and regions of the world. The participants visited the ASEAN tourism exhibition area and communicated with Korean tourism industry on possible cooperation.

During the seminar, S.G. Yang Xiuping interacted with the participants from ASEAN countries, introduced the fruitful achievements in the development of ASEAN-China relations, especially tourism cooperation, as well as a great deal of work done by ACC in promoting tourism cooperation between the two sides. She said that ACC would continue to give full play to the role of one-stop information and activities centre, seize the favorable opportunity for the 15th anniversary of ASEAN-China strategic partnership and ASEAN-China Year of Innovation to deepen the exchanges and cooperation between NTOs and enterprises from both sides, with a view to elevating ASEAN-China cooperation to a new level and bringing more benefits to the people of both sides.