'I've never seen Korea like this': Top buyers from Europe, Americas and Oceania visit

The Korea Tourism Organization said it wrapped up a seven-night, eight-day program that brought 20 leading travel agency buyers from emerging markets in Europe, the Americas and Oceania to Korea from Sept. 11 through Friday, combining a B2B travel mart with regionally focused familiarization tours.

The event was designed to give domestic inbound travel agencies — which have struggled to build their own overseas marketing networks — practical business connections for entering emerging markets in those regions, while supporting the development of high-value inbound travel products. The itinerary centered on special-interest tourism tailored to visitors from these markets, who tend to stay longer and prefer experiencing everyday local life and culture over visiting well-known tourist attractions.

The emerging markets in question are countries and regions where the organization has operated promotional offices since 2024, targeting destinations with high potential for inbound tourism to Korea. This year, those offices cover 10 locations in Europe, the Americas and Oceania — Italy, Spain, Sweden, the Benelux countries, Poland, Brazil, Chicago and Dallas in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand — along with two in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

The centerpiece of the program, the "2026 Europe, Americas and Oceania Emerging Markets Travel Mart," was held Thursday at The Plaza Seoul. A total of 30 domestic organizations — including the invited overseas buyers, domestic inbound travel agencies, local governments and hotels — attended and held one-on-one business consultations. The Korea Tourism Organization facilitated 315 B2B meetings in total through a pre-event matching platform and on-site open consultations, helping domestic industry players break into new markets.

The special-interest familiarization tour, which ran from Saturday through Thursday, took participants to Seoul, Busan and Andong in North Gyeongsang Province, themed around the key interests of tourists from Europe, the Americas and Oceania. Participants experienced Korean local content firsthand across three areas: wellness, including aroma oil therapy and a temple stay; outdoor activities, including a coastal walking trail and beach yoga at Gwangalli; and traditional culture, including Hahoe Folk Village in Andong and dancheong lacquerwork. Dedicated meeting sessions with local product development managers were built into every experiential activity, steering the program beyond simple sightseeing toward the creation of concrete inbound travel products.

Jeong Seok-in, head of the Korea Tourism Organization's international tourism division, said the event — organized by directly inviting leading buyers from emerging markets in Europe, the Americas and Oceania — "served as a decisive opportunity for Korea's inbound travel industry to build a global network in these emerging markets." He added that the organization would provide full follow-up support "so that the specialized content uncovered through the familiarization tours and the overseas networks forged through the travel mart can translate into real inbound travel products and tangible results in attracting foreign tourists."