In a nutshell Korea International Tourism Show held in KINTEX, Kyunggi Province, during 3 days from Sep. 7 until Sep. 9th, 2018, is a content department.

By combining tourism & content industry as well as through its connection with self-governing bodies in the nation, Korea International Tourism Show is striving to dig out continuous tourism contents.

So Korea International Tourism Show is providing a road Korea‘s tourism industry shall go among industry structure‘s reshuffling which is being sophistigated day by day.

That‘s why Korea International Tourism Show is gaining lots of attentions from tourism buyers, officials from self-governing bodies in the nation and last but not least Diplomatic Corps. in Seoul including its tourism wing (tourism board office in Korea) within its Embassy.

Like previous two years in the recent years, Diplomatic Corps. Ambassadors graced its opening ceremony with their attendance including Latvia Amb. Peteris Vaivars, Ghana Amb. Difie Agyyarko Kusi, Lebanon Amb. Antoine AZZAM, Tunisia Amb. Nabih EL ABED, Tajikistan Amb. Yusuf Sharifzoda, and last but not least Poland Amb. Piotr Ostaszewski in addition to over 30 senior diplomats such as Colombia Embassy ProColombia director Mr. Augusto Castellanos, Latvia Embassy deputy Mr. Oleg Ilgis etc.

In his welcoming remarks, its Organizing Committee chairman Choi Jae-sung, member of the National Assembly, pointed out: „With 4.7% of the entire GDP, the scale of our country tourism industry is still short compared with China 11% and Japan 6.8%“, adding he expects related industry circles will devote doubled efforts so that our country tourism industry will be able to reach to the level of the world through this time 3rd international Tourism Show.

As guest honor from the Diplomatic Corps. on behalf of all participated envoys & senior diplomats, Latvia Amb. Peteris Vaivars hoped: „Korea should be mainstay of world tourism industry with rich resources of historic, cultural and natural properties along with the firmly provided tourism related business environment and infrastructure“. [See Latvia Amb. Vaivars‘ welcome remarks at the end of this article!]

Despite of its short history, Korea International Tourish Show has grown as a major event to represent our country‘s tourism industry, according to tourism experts. So in this year as well, a total of 500 booths showed offed their tourism industry‘s feast including theme tourism pavilions, food pavilions, publicity pavilions for self-governing bodies in the nation while many Embassies were attending in it through world travel information pavilions such as Austria Tourism Board, Latvia Tourism Board, Guam Tourism Board, Dubai Tourism Board, Mexico Tourism Board, to name just a few.

Owing to a wave of the 4th Industrial Revolution, we are witnessing a turning point of history when industry structure is fundamentally changing. In order to prepare such a steep change of the times, new growth engine must be prepared. Tourism industry is an alternative for those alternatives, according to tourism experts.

Tourism industry is called usaually „as an industry without chimney“. Even though there are not any physical infrastructures, employment and high value-added can be created if tourism contents with regional peculiar tourism contents are only provided through many tourism shows, according to Universal Live, its main coorganizer for hosting 3rd Korea International Tourism Show this year following its successful two previous Korea International Tourish Shows in past two years.

That‘s why Korea International Tourism Show is important, says CEO Lee Moon-sup from Universal Live Co., adding KITS will challenge to be reborned as No. 1 tourism exhibition in the Republic of Korea.

For reference, Universal Live Co. operates booths in oversea international tourism exhibitions such as Shanghai SWTF on April 18-21, 2019, Beijing BITE on May 10-12, 2019, Guangzhou CITIE on Sep. 6-8, 2019, and last but not least China‘s HWLTE on Nov. 22-24, 2019 for next year as well in addition to its Korea International Tourism Show & Gangwon Food Exhibition in November this year.

Universal Live Co. is assessed to create tourism contents with high level‘s specialism by digging out differentiated contents through exact market analysis and demand survey. More importantly, Universal Live Co. is playing a bridge role so that a lot of many Korea‘s institutionss & corporations can take part in overseas exhibitions in cooperation with oversea agencies in China among others for the mutual exchange & development of exhibition industry.

The following is Latvia Amb. H.E. Peteris Vaivars’ Congratulatury speech at the Opening Ceremony which was held on 11:00 am, Sep. 6th(Thursday) at KINTEX, Goyang, Korea to mark the 3rd Korea International Tourism Show 2018. –Ed.

Latvia Ambassador H.E. Peteris Vaivars’ Congratulatury speech at the Opening Ceremony of the 3rd Korea International Tourism Show 2018, on 6 SEP 11:00 at KINTEX, Goyang.

Your Excellencies,

All distinguished guests and participants,

First of all, on behalf of the Diplomatic Corps, as Latvian Ambassador to the Republic of Korea I would like to convey our sincere congratulations on the opening of the 2018 Korea International Tourism Show which kicked off this morning here in KINTEX, Goyang.

The fact that so many envoys gathered this morning here shows the importance of the event, even despite its rather short history of 3 years. It is also a great pleasure for me that Latvia is represented in this show for the first time as a new, dynamic and modern travel destination. I am sure Korean travellers will discover Latvia as a hidden treasure of the Baltic Sea and schedule one of their next visits abroad to my country.

This year is a special year for Latvia and our Baltic neighoors – Estonia and Lithuania. We all celebrate 100th birthday of our countries. We all had a great pleasure to participate in PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games and all three Presidents of Baltic States visited this year Korea and had summit meetings with President Moon.

Furthermore, I would like to underline that tourism is the important business area not only for Latvia but all countries represented here today. We all strive to offer the best possible tourism experience for Korean travellers and are very happy for the increasing number of Korean visitors overseas. I think countries represented here greatly complement each other and as a whole makes a very attractive products for Korean travelers.

Tourism helps to create new connections and new discoveries, broadens each persons horizon and brings people closer to each other. Foreigners who visit Korea can experience rich historic, cultural and natural heritage along with well developed tourism infrastructure. I am also happy for Busan which is nominated as a top destination in Asia by Lonely Planet. Busan is also one of my favourite places in Korea.

Korea International Tourism Show 2018 is a one-stop tourism business place that provides rich contents on culture tourism along with medical and beauty tourism creating a great event with an added value.

So we foreign diplomats in Korea highly value that Korea International Tourism Show 2018 provides not only a coherent tourism information and active consultation environment but also a festive tourism industry market composing of diverse tourism-related contents including various events and programmes.

Welcome to Latvia, welcome to all other countries represented here and thank you very much for the great event!

Thank you.