Korea inspires corporate and incentive travel groups at the Korea MICE Night 2018

The Korea MICE Night 2018, an annual event organized by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) Manila office to stimulate the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) market in the Philippines, was held last August 9 at The Peninsula Manila, Makati City.

The two-part event was joined by more than a hundred representatives from different corporation in the Philippines including travel agencies who have sent incentive groups to Korea during the previous year.






"This is an ideal moment for more Filipinos from various business industries to visit Korea, be it for meetings, conventions, for team building activities or as an incentive. Korea promises a memorable and inspiring travel experience," said Mr. Joon Kil Jo, Director of KTO Manila Office.

The event was co-organized by Gyeonggi Tourism Organization (GTO) and was participated in by 10 MICE service providers from Korea's Gyeonggi Province.






The main presenters of the event were Mr. John Christopher Bonifacio of KTO Manila and Mr. Jung Chul Oh of GTO discussing both KTO and GTO's MICE support respectively, while Ms. Leslie Wycoco-Villegas of Asia United Bank shared her testimony of AUB's company incentive trip to Korea and her experience joining the MICE familiarization trip.

"Since 2016 the number of incentive tourists from the Philippines to Korea has grown by almost 130 percent because of passion and endeavor of both the corporations and the travel agencies," said Mr. Dong Han Kang, Director of GTO. According to KTO, between 2016 and 2017, incentive travelers from Southeast Asia has experienced an upward trend particularly Malaysia at 27.3%, Vietnam at 90.5%, and the Philippines, which posted the highest growing percentage, at 128.7% with 4,855 travelers for incentive/corporate meeting purposes.

KTO is optimistic that the interest in Korea as an incentive travel destination will continue to grow even more with the introduction of Korean Group Visa for Philippine passport holders. "The Korean Embassy in the Philippines has made visa application a lot easier for corporate and school groups traveling to Korea for incentives, corporate meetings or educational purposes," said Mr. John Christopher Bonifacio, Assistant Manager of KTO Manila Office. Under this program, the company would only need to submit a copy of their business permit and a visa request letter while the employees/staff only have to submit their original passports via the 10 designated travel agencies for group visa.

In addition, KTO has rolled out its new MICE brand "Korea Unique Venues" introducing twenty world-class meeting venues. These venues are a result of close collaborations with local convention bureaus and suppliers, where the Korea MICE Bureau evaluated recommended sites and filtered them according to their characteristics, usability, and willingness to open the place for business events.