Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) has launched its Korea Specialist travel agent e-learning programme in the Middle East. 

The tourism board said it has invested around US$ 50,000 to launch the programme in the region, in a bid to boost knowledge of Korea among the region’s travel trade. KTO is also awarding prizes including I-pads and LCD TVs to the first agents to become ‘Korea Specialists’ in order to encourage maximum participation.

Hwang Seung Hyun, regional director, KTO Dubai said there was a desperate need to educate the region’s travel trade about Korea because it has “come to a stage where consumers have better knowledge than the travel agent.”

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He put this down to the huge popularity of Korean dramas among the younger generation.

“We realised the urgent need for a specialist training program that could be done from the comfort of the agents’ office or home,” explained Hyun.

“We believe that it is better late than never. Tourism arrivals into Korea from GCC and other Middle Eastern countries have had a robust growth during the last two years. Arrivals are no longer just confined to summer months and instead are spread throughout the year including spring and Eid holidays.”

The programme consists of five modules covering various aspects of the tourism industry with a multi-choice questionnaire. With Korea being a new-to-market destination, the focus of the program is on the major cities, and the modules have been tailor made to meet the demands of the Arab traveller.

“The course has been made very simple to ensure basic product knowledge and maximum participation from the travel trade and thus narrow the trade – consumer relationship,” explained Hyun.

Korea currently receives around 60,000 visitors per year from the Middle East. KTO  want to increase this figure to 100,000 by 2012 as part of its ongoing ‘Visit Korea’ campaign. Over 100 travel agents have registered for the course since its launch.

Sima Yagan, PR & communication manager, KTO said that since launching the programme enquiries from the trade had increased: “We have also been receiving a lot of appreciation and curious questions from the travel trade since launching the program. The number of visitors and the calls to our office has also substantially increased."