Record High Visit of Foreign Tourists thanks to Increased Awareness of the 2018 Winter Olympics

The number of foreign tourists is expected to reach a record high this winter season due to the ski resort and winter festival.

Current status of reservation in December showed that the number of foreign tourists were estimated to be over 356,000 by a 23 percent increase compared with that of last year. Ski tour packages sold during tourist fair of last August increased by 26 percent compared with that of last year in major markets of South East such as Singapore and Malaysia. Moreover, visits of FIT increased by 20 percent or more.
 
It is worthy of notice that reservations of about 1,500 Australian was confirmed since the promotion of new markets which focused on Australia, leading full-scale visits.
 
In specific, due to intense marketing campaign in Alpencia, a major city of Winter Olympic, such as farm tours and overseas advertising, the number of foreign visitors has increased rapidly reaching 154,000 people by 66 percent increase, compared with last year (92,000 people).
 
The number of foreign tourists is estimated to be 36,900 people in ski resorts in our province from Dec. 15 2011 to March 2012. 『Fun Ski Festival』and 『Go Go Ski Festival』will be held for ski tourists from South East Asia and 『Russkiy Festival』for those from Russia. Additionally, tourist packages associated with major winter festivals in our province will attract more tourists including Hwacheon Trout Festival, Inje Smelt Festival, Taebaek Flower in Snow Festival, and Pyeongchang Trout Festival.
 
As a reason of this increase, several could be attributed as follows: First, Ski festival held in South East Asia areas, supported by increased brand awareness with the appointment as a Winter Olympic 2018, allowed ski population in South East Asia to choose Gangwon-do as a winter sightseeing destination and to revisit Gangwon-do. Second, aggressive marketing for FIT in Americas and Oceania turned out to be effective including sightseeing sales, farm tour, advertising, and road show.
 
Expecting a great boost in local economy due to the rapid increase of tourists, Gangwon-do is constantly expending its effort to welcome the tourists to ski resorts by such as, but not limited to, installing a welcome banner and supporting performances to satisfy foreign tourists looking for ski-associated winter tour attractions.