Critics say local officials aren’t doing enough to convince foreign companies to choose Jeju as a destination for incentive travel. As Joseph Kim now reports, that segment of the tourism market is very profitable.
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Wolmido, Incheon (March 28)

On (월미도)Wolmido Culture Street in (인천)Incheon, a total of 4,500 Chinese tourists enjoyed a Korean "Chi-Mek" party on March 28th.

Chi is short for chicken and Mek is short for (맥주) mekju, meaning beer in the Korean language.

For the event, more than 550 tables were set up on the street.

The participants were company officials and employees from China's Aolan International Beauty Group, a cosmetics and health supplements company based in the Chinese province of Guangzhou.

6000 employees in total were able to come to Korea on a special vacation awarded to them from the company.

Their visits to Korea added over 27 billion won to the economy.

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2011 visit by Baojian employees boosted economy by \91b

Some 11,000 employees from China's Baojian Group- a healthcare products company-were rewarded with a trip to Jeju in September 2011.
Their visits were a boon for the island economy to the tune of about 91 billion won.

The last visit of a mega incentive tourist group was a group of 17,000 Chinese Amway employees back in 2014 who stayed a short 8 hours on the island.

There have not been any other mega incentive tourist groups since then.

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Competition heating up over incentive travel

The island succeeded in bringing in a major incentive group from a Japanese firm, but the provincial office made a misstep of releasing the news without prior consultation with the company. The trip is currently on the brink of cancellation.

On average, a tourist on incentive travels spends 2.7 times that of an individual tourist's budget. In addition, incentive tours are a great means of local promotion.

Given this, many cities and provinces are strategically and aggressively initiating incentive tour programs.

INTERVIEW
Kim Eui-keun / Professor, Jeju International University
The great benefit to the economy is that the companies pay all travel expenses, meaning they tend to spend more money than individual tourists. So, cities and provinces are offering a wider variety of tour programs and bolstering their tourism infrastructure, as well.
<인터뷰 : 김의근/제주국제대학교 교수>
"인센티브 투어의 장점은 본인이 개인이 요금을 내는 게 아니라 기업이 대신 내기 때문에 방문할 때 개인 소비 지출이 굉장히 크게 증가합니다. 지역 경제적 파급효과가 앞다퉈 인센티브 투어를 유치하려고 하고 있습니다."

Busan won a bid against Singapore and Taiwan in successfully luring 12,000 tourists from a multinational skin care company based in China.

And a total of 15,000 employees of the Chinese branch of Amway will visit (순천) Suncheon via cruise ship next year.

[CAMERA] Ko Moon-su
[REPORTER] Joseph Kim

Jeju, a popular destination with its pristine nature and competitive MICE infrastructure is slowly falling behind the competition.
Joseph Kim, KCTV