The summit between President Moon Jae-in and Felipe VI of Spain (Credit: Cheong Wa Dae)
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that they signed a memorandum of understanding on the Korea-Spanish Tourism Cooperation with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism of Spain on October 23, 2019. The MOU was signed shortly after the summit between President Moon Jae-in and Felipe VI of Spain.
Major contents of the MOU include the exchange of tourism experiences and statistics between the two countries through the 2020 ~ 2021 year of mutual visit, mutual promotion of MICE and medical tourism, and mutual promotion of tourism-related cultural, arts and sports events.
The two governments are going to plan to establish a special communication channel between tourism governments to specifically develop and jointly promote tourism exchange projects in the future.
In recent years, more than 500,000 Koreans visit Spain every year due to the increasing interest of Spain through various domestic Korean TV shows and the expansion of non-stop flights between Spain and Korea.
While Korea attracts about 20,000 Spanish tourists a year, Spain is a key tourist bridgehead for the Spanish-speaking South American tourism market, which is a high-potential market for Korean Tourism. Besides, tourism cooperation with Spain, the world's second-largest tourism country, which attracted 82 million overseas tourists in 2018, will contribute to Korea's competitiveness in global tourism.
Korea and Spain will actively exchange in various fields to celebrate the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2020.
In particular, the designation of “2020-2021 Korea-Spain Mutual Visit Year” will be a symbol of cooperation that not only promotes tourism exchange between the two countries but also strengthens the friendly partnership.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will participate in the FITUR, the world's three largest international tourism fairs in Madrid, Spain, on January 2020.
