SEOUL – The number of Russian tourists travelling to South Korea is expected to double to 350,000 this year post the introduction of a visa-free regime in January and growing interest in medical tourism, travel industry insiders predict.
“Seoul is the Russian traveller’s favourite South Korean city,” Korea Tourism Organization’s Chung Jae-Soon said at a Russia-Korea tourism congress here on Friday, predicting the volume to double from 175,000 in 2013.
The increase will be further boosted by special tourism promotions between the two countries in 2014-2015. This sits alongside vibrant business travel and incomers arriving for medical treatment, numbering 24,000 in 2012.
Traditional popularity among health-conscious visitors from Russia’s far east is now also gaining ground in central Russia, said the Chung.
But conference organizers have also been promoting Russian resorts as destinations for foreign guests. Events are being organized by the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism) and the Russian Travel Association’s World Without Borders.
Events on the same lines of the “Successful Russia” promotion will be held in Beijing in June, in Tokyo in September, and in Shanghai and Hong Kong in November.
