Page 27 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL8

There are an endless number of unique things to see and do in Korea. Visit the UNESCO- designated World Heritage sites, or takea tour of the DMZis reasonable, and at the same time the quality is excellent.What about tourism? How do you plan to attract more Thai tourists? What are Korea’s strengths as a tourist attraction?Korean cuisine bears the influence of the four seasons: in particular, kimchi and other fermented foods were necessary to get our ancestors through the winter.Fermentation takes a long time, so Korean cuisine can accurately be described as “slow food”. Kimchi, which is most commonly made of cabbage or radishes, is rich in nutrition and undoubtedly helped Koreans survive harsh living conditions over thousands of years.There are an endless number of unique things to see and do in Korea. Visit the UNESCO-designated World Heritage sites, or take atour of the DMZ. Korea is also a shopper’s paradise! You can find luxury brands, the latest fashions, cosmetics, souvenirs and more.I’d like to show you some statistics.The number of Korean visitors to Thailand exceeded 1 million fouryears ago.I was happy to witness the numberof Korean visitors increased 18% (to 375,000 persons) in the first quarter of this year, thus making Korea ranked third among tourists by origin.For your information, Korea was fifth for tourist numbers in previous years. And the number of Korean visitors ranked fourth from January to May.On the other hand, the number of Thai visitors to Korea increased 25% to 470,000 last year and ranked sixth.With the growing interest inthe culture of Korea by Thais, more and more Thai students are learning Korean. Now Korean is taught in 40 universities, among which 10 universities have already established departments of Korean language, and is also taught in 60 high schools in Thailand.I believe the Thai youngsters now learning Korean will constitute a solid foundation for the ever growing friendly relations between our two countries in the years to come.Elite+ 25