The Korea Tourism Organization and Eastar Jet plan to raise the share of foreign tourists using regional airports from 45% this year to 55% by 2028. Their plan is to jointly attract new Greater China routes and charter flights and strengthen local marketing to increase regional visits by foreign travelers.
The Korea Tourism Organization said on the 27th that it signed a business agreement with Eastar Jet on the 23rd at its Seoul Center to expand Greater China routes at regional airports and boost foreign tourist attraction.
The two sides will work to attract Greater China tourists using regional airports as bases. The goal is to raise the share of Eastar Jet's inbound traffic at regional airports to 45% this year and gradually expand it to 55% by 2028.
To this end, they agreed to jointly attract new Greater China routes and non-scheduled flights departing from and arriving at regional airports, and to expand operations. They will also cooperate in attracting charter flights targeting large-scale tourist groups, such as joint promotions in Greater China and MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) incentive groups.
Operational and usage data, including foreign passenger load factors, will be jointly managed and used for route-specific marketing and tourism product development.
In the first half of this year, Eastar Jet had the highest share of regional airport routes among all its Greater China routes at 50%, the highest among domestic low-cost carriers (LCCs). Its growth rate in the number of international flights was also the highest among LCCs.
This summer, the carrier will operate non-scheduled flights on the Datong, Nantong and Ningbo routes and increase flights on the Busan-Taipei route. By next year, it plans to sequentially open Greater China routes departing from Busan and Daegu. The Korea Tourism Organization will pursue local publicity and tourist attraction marketing in line with the launch schedules of the new routes.
"Expanding the entry of foreign tourists through regional airports is a key task for the early achievement of 30 million foreign tourists," said Jeong Seok-in, head of the international tourism division at the Korea Tourism Organization. "We will increase the number of foreign travelers entering through regional airports and connect this to greater regional consumption and longer stays."
