'2023 Seoul International Travel Mart ( hereinafter referred to as SITM)' will be held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza ( DDP) for five days from the 20th ( Tue ) to the 24th ( Sat ) to promote the recovery of international tourism demand and at the same time revitalize the Korean tourism industry. .

SITM , which celebrated its 9th anniversary this year , consists of various programs such as △ Buyer Familiarization Tour △ B2B Business Consulting △ Opening Ceremony △ Tourism Promotion Booth Operation △ Seoul Tourism Seminar .

On the 20th , a pre-familiarization tour was held for invited overseas buyers to provide opportunities to experience various ' Seoul Lifestyle ' experiences such as traditional markets , mountain climbing , Han River waterside experiences , and K- culture. will deliver the message of Afterwards, the Welcome Night will provide an opportunity to rebuild the network between overseas buyers and domestic sellers that had been suspended due to COVID -19 .

At B2B Travel Mart, on-site consultations between overseas buyers and domestic sellers and video consultations in the online space are conducted respectively . On-site counseling will be held at DDP Art Hall 1 for two days from 21 ( Wed ) to 22 ( Thu ) , and online video counseling will be held from 23 ( Fri ) to 24 ( Sat ) .

At the Seoul Tourism Seminar on the 22nd, ' Seoul Lifestyle ' will be introduced and content lectures will be held that can be used to develop Seoul tourism products .

The tourism PR booth will be operated in the DDP lobby from 21 ( Wed ) to 22 ( Thu ) , and 5 Seoul startups ( Rainpo Company , R &1 , Hitchmad , Every Month, Every Week , Seoul Oorae Store ) will participate to provide tourism-related information. We plan to provide a variety of services and experience services .

'B2B Business Consultation ' is a core program of SITM , and 768 overseas buyers and domestic sellers participate . 354 overseas buyers ( 135 offline, 219 online ) and 414 domestic sellers registered , showing an increase of more than 26.5% compared to last year ( 607 ) .

The number of pre-consultation matching (PSA) cases also exceeded 2,700 , showing the keen interest of the participants in the endemic era .

In particular, this year, 135 offline buyers were invited, a 55% increase compared to last year (87 companies ) , greatly increasing the scale of offline face-to-face consultations, not only rebuilding the domestic and international tourism network that collapsed due to COVID -19 , but also producing practical results. It is expected to become a place of business .

As for the characteristics of participating buyers, local outbound travel agencies are the most common (80%), followed by themed tours (6%) and lodging (4%). Participating sellers are travel agencies (47%) and medical institutions (14%). , followed by lodging (12%) . Last year's consulting performance was tallied at 2386 business meetings , 804 contract negotiations , and approximately KRW 32.4 billion .

This SITM tourism promotion booth will be reborn as an event that promotes tourism in Korea by realizing win-win tourism between Seoul and other regions , with the participation of local government tourism organizations as well as autonomous districts in Seoul . Through this, it is expected to promote local tourism resources and encourage foreign tourists visiting Seoul to visit local areas naturally .

Participating agencies are 8 autonomous districts ( Gangnam-gu , Gangbuk-gu , Gangseo - gu , Gwangjin-gu , Nowon -gu , Dobong -gu , Songpa-gu , Jung-gu ) and 4 local governments ( Gangwon-do Tourism Foundation , Daegu Culture & Arts Agency , Busan Tourism Organization , Iksan City ) .

[News Road] Reporter Seo Jin-soo gosu420@naver.com