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(LEAD) Lee calls for revamping of tourism industry
By Yoo Cheong-mo
SEOUL, Feb. 4 (Yonhap) -- President-elect Lee Myung-bak said Monday South Korea's snowballing tourism deficit should not be neglected any longer, urging industry executives to redouble efforts to attract foreign tourists.
Lee said his incoming government is willing to enforce drastic deregulation and taxation reform to foster tourism as one of the nation's strategic growth industries, along with information technology and environment.
"I've heard South Korea sustained a deficit of $10 billion in tourism trade last year. Increasing numbers of Koreans go abroad, but the number of visiting foreigners seems to stagnate," Lee said during his meeting with tourism industry representatives in Seoul.
"Previous governments have mapped out ambitious plans for the promotion of the tourism industry, but the outcome has not been satisfactory. My government intends to make tourism grow into a strategic industry of the future through deregulation and overhaul of the tourism-related taxation system."
Citing Dubai's bid to lure 120 million visitors by 2015 through the creation of a desert canal, Lee stressed that Koreans' perception of the tourism industry has to be fundamentally changed.
"The attitude of tourism industry executives is very important. The government's role is limited in spite of a drive for deregulation and taxational overhaul," he said.
Lee, who is to be sworn in on Feb. 25, has said that his cross-country waterway project will help boost tourism and have beneficial effects in logistics, balanced regional development and employment.
In 2007, about 6.4 million foreign tourists visited South Korea, marking a year-on-year rise of 4 percent, while an estimated 13 million Koreans went abroad, according to government figures.
During the meeting with the president-elect, executives of the Korea Tourism Association (KTA) recommended that the government take measures to boost the morale of hotel and tourism industry employees in a bid to increase the number of foreign arrivals here to 10 million this year.
"State jurisdiction over foreign tourist attractions is now spread across several ministries, including the culture, foreign and construction ministries. The bureaucratic channel must be singularized," Kim Byung-sam, an executive of the KTA.
"Tourism seems to be regarded as a byproduct of the proposed cross-country waterway. But we wish the canal project would be pushed from the perspective of tourism. In addition, more attention has to be given to the specialization of tourism programs in Jeju Island," he said.
ycm@yna.co.kr
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