It's spring and the flowers are in bloom everywhere for the group of travel agents from Jeddah, who visited the beautiful Jeju Island as part of their It's spring and the flowers are in bloom everywhere for the group of travel agents from Jeddah, who visited the beautiful Jeju Island as part of their

A travel trade group from Jeddah flew to Seoul and were amazed to find a hidden gem just waiting to be discovered by Saudi travellers.

The group of travel agents from Jeddah were hosted on the trip by Qatar Airways and the Korean Tourism Organisation (KTO). The week-long trip was designed to showcase South Korea as a leisure destination, taking in the major tourism hot spots of Seoul, Busan and Jeju Island.

For all the travel agents on the trip, this was their first experience of Korea and the agents were excited to discover a hidden gem of a destination which they found to be fully geared up to cater to the needs of the Saudi traveller — offering late night shopping, Arab markets, halal restaurants and a safe and secure environment.

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The agents enjoyed ATV rides on the mountainous and coastal terrains of Jeju Island, a submarine tour, a rifle train and a ride aboard the bullet train which reaches speeds of 310 kms / hour.

Other attractions included a visit to the 24-hour shopping markets of Dongdaemun which houses over 50,000 stores, a cable car ride from N Seoul Tower, a visit to two of the ‘top 10’ theme parks in the world, and a journey through the future of wireless technology.

The agents also explored the modern city of Seoul, with its state-of-the-art infrastructure, clean, safe and secured environment, friendly people, 24-hour shopping markets and world class theme parks.

Saudi Arabia is an emerging market for tourists to South Korea, with 2010 summer arrivals growing 80% compared year-on-year.

KTO and Qatar Airways have been working closely in positioning the destination among their clients with frequent fam trips and several other promotional campaigns since the launch of Qatar Airways direct flights to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport last year. The flight from Doha takes around nine hours and operates seven times a week.

Much of the tourism is composed of higher middle income travellers and educational tourism from schools and Universities.

While most Saudi visitors currently come to Korea from Riyadh, Seunghyun Hwang, regional director, KTO, Gulf region said the first fam trip of Jeddah travel trade, “could be a turning point in positioning Korea as the newest tourism destination for Saudi nationals in the Western region.

Syed Hafeez, a senior executive at STTB Travel agreed, describing Korea as a “miracle destination waiting to be discovered”, especially given that as Saudis travellers do not require a visa visit to enter the country.