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Could South Korea’s loss be the rest of Asia’s gain?


It is timely that TRBusiness publishes its Annual South Korea market report in this issue, as publicity surrounding the country’s dispute with China has reached peak levels in the last few months. It all started in August last year when the


Chinese government issued a thinly-veiled warning to the South Korean Government


concerning its plan to plug into the US’ Terminal High-Altitude Air Defence (THAAD) system by the end of 2017 could lead to economic sanctions and possibly even a new ‘cold war’. At the time, former South Korean President Park Geun-hye


responded by trying to reassure Beijing that the planned deployment was purely defensive in relation to North Korea. Unfortunately for South Korea, this argument did not prove persuasive… Since then growth in visitor arrivals to South Korea from China has


ground to a halt as the Chinese government has set into motion a series of reprisals for those companies connected with the deployment. As has been widely reported, one of these companies is Lotte Group


who has been targeted after the conglomerate sold a golf course to the South Korean government for use to install the missile system. This situation in South Korea was made worse by the dismissal and


arrest of President Park – on 13 charges including bribery – in March. Without a rudder, it seems that the country is currently unable to


steer its way clear of diplomatic disaster as it yearns for new elections, which are due take place on 9 May. The latest news [writing mid-April] according to Reuters, is that the


Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang reiterated China’s opposition to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system at a regular briefing in Beijing on 17 April. At the same time, South Korean acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn


and visiting US Vice President Mike Pence reaffirmed their plans to go ahead with the deployment of the system [again on 17 April].


Chinese tour groups re-routed It is difficult to see how relations between China and South Korea are going to improve before South Korea’s election and even after that, if the new President isn’t able to convince China of its seemingly innocent reasons for progressing with the deployment. However, it could mean good news for other countries in Asia


Pacific as Chinese travellers – especially tour groups – simply choose to holiday elsewhere. [China has banned agencies from booking group tours to South Korea]. Perhaps this means that we will see a spike in Chinese tourists to


Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Okinawa and even further afield. In the meantime, South Korea’s DF&TR industry is desperately


trying to pivot in its marketing and merchandising strategy to target more South Korean customers, as it must once again face up to its over-reliance on Chinese travellers. The TRBusiness Annual South Korea market report appears on p89-135.


Charlotte Turner, Managing Editor MAY 2017 TRBUSINESS 13 China's third-largest city, Guangzhou. PATA 5-year forecast expects


630m will visit Asia in 2017 The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) expects the region to attract more than 630m international visitors in 2017, according to its most recent five-year 2017-2021 forecast for the Asia Pacific visitor economy. This is part of the latest forecast data, which is now available at


PATAmPOWER ‘exclusively for PATA Corporate members’. PATA estimates that ‘collective’ foreign arrivals into 39 Asia


Pacific destinations will grow by 5.9% this year compared with 2016, representing an additional 35m foreign arrivals to the region this year. In a statement, PATA said: “Between 2017-2021, foreign


arrivals into Asia Pacific are expected to grow at an average rate of 5% per annum, reaching a combined foreign inbound count of close to 758m. “By 2021 the Americas (as defined by PATA) will be receiving 156m


foreign arrivals annually, while Asia can expect to receive over 573m. The Pacific is forecast to receive over 28m foreign arrivals annually. China, Hong Kong SAR, the USA, Korea (ROK) and Canada will all remain in the top five traffic-generating markets for the Asia Pacific region.” In addition, PATA predicts that the Russian Federation will


generate 4m foreign visitor arrivals to Asia Pacific by 2021 and take the third-place ranking in absolute volume terms over 2017, following China and Hong Kong SAR. Other destinations including Thailand (+37.5%), Lao PDR (+9.7%)


and Korea (ROK) (+7.5%) will register the highest average annual growth from the Russian Federation over the next five years, while a few destinations such as Hong Kong SAR (-5.0%), Cambodia (-3.6%) and the Northern Marianas (-2.3%) are expected to face a slowdown in numbers from this source market.


LEADER/NEWS


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