New group to boost
isle tourism from Korea

Competitors aren't waiting for
Seoul's financial crisis to end

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Korean travel to Hawaii has plummeted since the country's financial problems hit last year and its currency sank.

But that makes it all the more important to build some tourism marketing now, say the organizers of a new Korean Visitors Association, set to hold an inaugural luncheon on Wednesday.

There are already positive signs that Korea's economy will rebound, employment will rise and people will travel again, said Casey Choi, the organization's president.

However, competition is fierce and the Koreans are being bombarded with cut-price deals to Thailand, the rest of Southeast Asia, Europe and Guam, said Choi, regional vice president of marketing and sales for Asia at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

"Now is the time to attack the Korean market," so as not to lose out to competitors when Korean overseas travel resumes, he said.

"We're back to zero again and it's time to start over," said Choi, who first developed the Korean market for the Polynesian Cultural Center with a trip to Korea in 1988.

The center then got included in all the Korean package deals and built a market share that has 95 percent of Korean travelers to Hawaii visiting there, he said.

The trouble is that the market plummeted and PCC's success in building market share translated into an equally big hurt, Choi said.

He said in the first three months of 1998, PCC's Korean business fell about 90 percent from the same period last year. In March, for example, about 700 Koreans visited the center vs. about 8,000 in March 1997.

Choi said the rest of the attractions and tour businesses in Hawaii have told him they are having a similar experience.

Ted Sturdivant, a publisher of tourist guide materials for the Koreans and others, said the International Monetary Fund loan of $60 billion to Korea and yesterday's quick sale to international investors of $4 billion in Korean bonds are good signs for the nation's prospects.

In international news, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said yesterday that South Korea's economy is expected to grow about 4 percent next year, after contracting slightly this year.

"They'll be one of the first countries that turns around there," said Sturdivant, who is vice president of the new association. "That all boils down to, you'll have visitors that will be returning."

But Hawaii has to have a visible marketing appearance to win businesses that competitors are pushing hard for, he said.

Sturdivant said the new association hopes to work closely with the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau to add a Korea-specific push to HVCB marketing efforts.

Also working with the new association is an older one, the Korean Tourism Agents Association, headed by C.K. Kim, which has lobbied hard on behalf of Korean tourism and has been one of the major forces fighting for a visa waiver for Korean tourists.

Kim said his group has downsized and doesn't have money for a marketing push, which he agrees is needed now. Kim's group will continue to represent the Korean tourist industry as a whole.

The Korean Visitors Association will hold its first meeting in the Seoul Jung Restaurant in the Waikiki Resort Hotel, starting at 11:30 a.m., for $10 a head at the door. To reserve a seat, call the association at 596-7792.