Korea, Japan and China have agreed to form one single tourism bloc in East Asia at the trilateral tourism ministers’ meeting which took place on April 11 and 12 in Tokyo. The three countries adopted a joint statement containing their agreement.

The two-day meeting was held for the first time in four years, since the last meeting took place in Pyeongchang in 2011. This meeting was attended by about 300 representatives from the three governments and tourism industries. Participants included Minister of Culture, Sports & Tourism Kim Jongdeok, Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Akihiro Ota and Chairman of the China National Tourism Administration Li Jinzao.

In the April 12 joint statement, the three ministers agreed to increase the number of people-to-people exchanges in the region to 30 million by 2020, from around 20 million seen last year. They also agreed to run a joint “Visit East Asia" campaign around the world, and to improve the quality of the tourist experience, especially in the safety and shopping sectors. The three ministers also agreed to run a joint campaign to attract tourists from the U.S. and Europe on occasion of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.




By Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Jeon So-hyang, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
arete@korea.kr