The Korea Tourism Organization, headquartered in Wonju, is stepping up efforts to accelerate the arrival of 2 million inbound cruise tourists a year.
Foreign visitors arriving by cruise ship have been visibly more numerous than in previous years at seven domestic cruise ports — including Busan, Sokcho, Jeju, Seosan, Yeosu and Pohang — amid a broader surge in cruise calls. Against that backdrop, the Korea Tourism Organization announced Tuesday that it had successfully held the 21st Cruise Development Council meeting aboard the Spectrum of the Seas, a vessel operated by global cruise line Royal Caribbean that was docked at Busan port.
This year's cruise season opened with the Westerdam (82,862 tons) calling at Sokcho port on April 17 — a ship whose name is not yet widely familiar to Korean audiences. On May 12, the Costa Serena (114,261 tons), a cruise line with a strong affinity for Korea, brought foreign tourists into Sokcho.
Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province and Sokcho city announced that The World (43,188 tons) is scheduled to call at Sokcho on Sept. 17, followed in October by the Westerdam on the 17th and the Seabourn Encore (41,865 tons) on the 19th and 25th. Both The World and the Seabourn Encore will be making their first-ever calls at Sokcho port — the result of the city's sustained promotional efforts at global cruise expos and port sales presentations to cruise line officials, highlighting the port's strong infrastructure and appealing tourism offerings.
Local governments operating the seven domestic cruise ports, led by Busan and Jeju, are also actively pursuing foreign visitor attraction, negotiations over homeport and near-homeport status, and benchmarking trips to ports such as Keelung in Taiwan.
The council meeting aboard the Spectrum of the Seas was organized to explore ways to revitalize domestic cruise tourism through substantive cooperation with global cruise lines. The Spectrum of the Seas is a 169,000-ton mega-ship purpose-built for the Asian market. It was the first time the council held its meeting aboard an actively operating vessel.
More than 90 representatives from major institutions and industry players in Korea's cruise sector gathered to discuss practical measures for boosting tourism at port-of-call destinations.
The Korea Tourism Organization unveiled its "2026 Cruise Tourism Revitalization Project Plan," funded through a supplementary budget. The plan covers joint participation in port-of-call exhibition fairs, familiarization tours for cruise line staff, and co-marketing initiatives with Royal Caribbean.
Participants also discussed providing tailored services at each stage of a ship's arrival, disembarkation and stay, with the aim of encouraging tourists to spend more in local communities.
During the Busan call on May 12, a dedicated K-beauty shuttle bus for crew members operated jointly with Royal Caribbean between the terminal and Seomyeon Medical Street. The service raised the crew disembarkation rate from 29 percent to 49 percent compared with voyages where no such service ran.
Specialized strategies for key port-of-call destinations were also shared. Incheon presented a case study on attracting fly-and-cruise homeport business, while Busan highlighted its work developing products that link overnight port calls with local festivals.
Sokcho, Jeju, Yeosu and the Saemangeum Development Agency each introduced their own regional strategies. Royal Caribbean Asia-Pacific Vice President Wendy Yamazaki then outlined a path forward from a global cruise line perspective, speaking on the theme of key priorities for growing Korea's cruise industry.
Han Yeo-ok, head of the Korea Tourism Organization's International Tourism Content Division, said the organization would bring together the public sector, industry and academia to do its utmost to attract cruise tourists based on the discussions held at the council meeting. "We will expand our global network and pursue all-out marketing to achieve the goal of 2 million inbound cruise tourists at the earliest possible date," she said.
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