In line with this, Made in Korea (MIK 2012), a pioneering exhibition in the Mena region showcasing products, services and technologies from South Korea, will showcase a selection of top tourism destinations and value-added services in South Korea.

GCC countries are particularly important growth markets for South Korea’s tourism industry, led by Saudi Arabia, which witnessed a 52 per cent increase in tourists to Korea during the first six months of 2011 in comparison to the same period in 2010.

UAE’s tourists to Korea also increased by 16.9 per cent during the same timeframe, while the number of Kuwaiti tourists in South Korea was up by 15.7 per cent.
MIK 2012 will run from May 21 to 23 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

“Over the past several years we have witnessed a growing number of South Korean businessmen and investors travelling to the Middle East, taking advantage of the region’s tremendous potential for foreign trade and investment,” said Faisal Al Raisi, managing partner at Ideal Idea Events, organisers of MIK 2012.

“Tourism is another strategically important area of cooperation as it complements the strong economic relations between South Korea and Middle Eastern countries by building goodwill and promoting cultural understanding between the people of both regions.”

“Made in Korea 2012 is therefore strongly committed to cultivate stronger ties among key stakeholders of the tourism industry in South Korea and the Middle East, while creating new channels of cooperation and interaction by providing a dedicated business-to-business networking platform for key players in the tourism industry,” Al Raisi continued.

“Moreover, in cooperation with senior tourism officials and leading travel companies, we have prepared the widest selection of holiday destinations and value-added tourism services that will surely help generate greater interest and consequently increase travel between the Middle East and South Korea,” added Al Raisi.

MIK 2012 will gather at least 300 high-profile Korean exhibitors from a wide range of industries including tourism, automotive, engineering, metal, hospitality, textile, electrical, chemicals, rubber & plastics, power, healthcare, ICT, media, construction, furniture, fashion and even sport.

Representatives from Korean government agencies and regulatory authorities will also be present to meet with their counterparts from various Arab countries. Organisers also expect over 25,000 visitors during the three-day exhibition.

MIK 2012 will also host a series of conferences featuring prominent international speakers from both countries. The event, which will cover 14,000 sq m of exhibition space, will also host various competitions such as a “Poster Design Competition”, and the “Catwalk: Costume Designing Challenge”.

GCC countries are particularly important growth markets for South Korea’s tourism industry, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which witnessed a 52 per cent increase in tourists to Korea during the first six months of 2011 in comparison to the same period in 2010. UAE’s tourists to Korea also increased by 16.9 per cent during the same timeframe, while the number of Kuwaiti tourists in South Korea was up by 15.7 per cent.

MIK 2012, which will run from May 21 to 23, 2012, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), has been widely anticipated as a key networking platform between Korean and Middle East businesses that want to capitalise on the strong bilateral relations and rapidly expanding economic cooperation between the two regions. Tourism has been a particularly important focus area as tourist traffic between South Korea and the Middle East has significantly improved in the last few years with the opening of new direct flights between Korea and various cities in the Middle East.

Faisal Al Raisi, Managing Partner at IDEAL IDEA EVENTS, organisers of MIK 2012, said: “Over the past several years we have witnessed a growing number of South Korean businessmen and investors travelling to the Middle East, taking advantage of the region’s tremendous potential for foreign trade and investment. Tourism is another strategically important area of cooperation as it complements the strong economic relations between South Korea and Middle Eastern countries by building goodwill and promoting cultural understanding between the people of both regions.”

“Made in Korea 2012 is therefore strongly committed to cultivate stronger ties among key stakeholders of the tourism industry in South Korea and the Middle East, while creating new channels of cooperation and interaction by providing a dedicated business-to-business networking platform for key players in the tourism industry. Moreover, in cooperation with senior tourism officials and leading travel companies, we have prepared the widest selection of holiday destinations and value-added tourism services that will surely help generate greater interest and consequently increase travel between the Middle East and South Korea,” added Al Raisi.

Tourism in South Korea has been a major revenue source for the national economy with 8.7 million foreign tourists visiting the country, establishing South Korea as one of the world’s favourite holiday destinations. South Korea tourism authorities projected tourist receipts to exceed USD 10 billion in 2011.

MIK 2012 will gather at least 300 high-profile Korean exhibitors from a wide range of industries including tourism, automotive, engineering, metal, hospitality, textile, electrical, chemicals, rubber & plastics, power, healthcare, ICT, media, construction, furniture, fashion and even sport. Representatives from Korean government agencies and regulatory authorities will also be present to meet with their counterparts from various Arab countries. Organisers also expect over 25,000 visitors during the three-day exhibition.

MIK 2012 will also host a series of conferences featuring prominent international speakers from both countries. The event, which will cover 14,000 square meters of exhibition space, will also host various competitions such as a “Poster Design Competition”, and the “Catwalk: Costume Designing Challenge”.

IDEAL IDEA EVENTS, an Emirati exhibitions & events company and the organiser of MIK 2012, is powered by a team of exhibition professionals with extensive international experience in developing, marketing, selling and organizing events and exhibitions. Specialising in concept designing and exhibition management, IDEAL IDEA EVENTS regularly conducts detailed studies to have an in-depth understanding of visitor profiles and the required event layouts, policies and regulations, which is crucial in helping exhibitors achieve their business goals and corporate objectives.

On Friday, unknown attackers stopped a bus carrying 29 South Koreans in the vicinity of St. Catherine Monastery, robbed the tourists of their belongings, taking three of them and their guide into the desert by car.

It is not reported whether the criminals had put forward any demands.

This is not the first case of tourists kidnapped in Egypt – just a week ago in the same area, 2 American women were seized along the same scenario. A few hours later they were released.

The income from the thriving medical tourism doubled in five years as more foreign travelers came here to get medical services and plastic surgery.

“Foreign tourists are flocking to the country because of its advanced medical technologies, and Chinese and Japanese customers, in particular, are on the rise,” said an official at the BOK.

The medical travel account also posted the first-ever surplus as the income outpaced local residents’ overseas spending on medical travel, which stood at $109 million last year.

In addition to the sophisticated medical services, local administrations staged aggressive campaigns to lure more overseas travelers interested in getting healthcare services in Korea. The sweeping popularity of Korean pop culture is also said to have had a positive impact on the stronger demand for Korean medical services.

The travel account data are based on the details provided by incoming travelers and credit card purchase information.

In 2006 when the government began to compile the related data, the medical travel income stopped short of $59 million. The figure then rose at a steady pace: $68 million in 2007, $70 million in 2008, $83 million in 2009 and $90 million in 2010.

The Korean Embassy in China issued a total of 1,073 visas for medical tourism purposes last year, up 386 percent from a year earlier.

According to the government data, the most favored field was plastic surgery and skin care, which accounted for a 14 percent share in the medical tourism demand.

As the demand for Korean medical services surged, provincial governments are taking steps to ride the boom by beefing up their marketing and setting up new medical support systems targeting foreign travelers.

Gangneung, Gangwon Province plans to establish a customized medical support system to attract as many as 2,000 overseas medical patients this year. Daegu held a medical tourism event last month in China to explain its services to Chinese customers. A massive medical town is set to be built up in the South Jeolla Province to attract more foreign patients.

The couple were rescued Sunday morning after being stranded in the half-submerged ship, where a search for people still missing out of more than 4,200 originally on board was underway.

Five people have been confirmed dead and more than a dozen are still missing after the Costa Concordia hit rocks off Italy’s west coast on the evening of Friday the 13th.

Prosecutors have arrested the captain and first officer for alleged mishandling of the incident and neglect of duty.

Han Ki-Deok and his wife Jeong Hye-Jin, both 29-year-old schoolteachers, said in an interview with South Korea’s Yonhap news agency published Monday that they had been sleeping after dinner, oblivious to the disaster outside.

“By the time we woke up, the ship was tilting,” Yonhap quoted Han as saying in a hotel in Rome.

The couple ventured out to the corridor, which was already inclined so steeply that they couldn’t walk on it, he added.

“We ended up slipping towards the end of the corridor and even got ourselves injured,” said Han.

So the pair stayed in their dark cabin with no power, subsisting on bits of cookie and water. They took turns wearing an extra life jacket over their own lifevests to fight the cold.

They shouted for help until they were hoarse and blew whistles attached to the lifevests, promising each other they would “have a good life together” if they escaped.

“The room was pitch dark. We could only tell whether it was day or night outside through a ray of light coming from a small hole on the wall,” said Jeong.

They tried to consume as little food as possible, worrying they “may have to be here for quite a long time”, Jeong said, adding she felt “a life’s saviour” had arrived when rescuers found them.

The pair were taken to hospital for checkups. South Korea’s foreign ministry said they are in good health.

The couple, the last among 34 South Koreans rescued from the ship, said they now want another honeymoon — but “never a cruise tour”.

Korea, as are other Far and South Asian countries, have been identified by the Kenya Tourist Board as a potentially rich emerging market but has been lacking nonstop flights to make visits to Kenya, and East Africa for that matter, more attractive.

It is understood that talks on bilateral air services agreements are ongoing between Kenya and countries in the East to encourage the setting up of direct airlinks. The series of charters now underway will undoubtedly raise Kenya’s profile in Korea, and it is understood that Korean media will also cover the destination, which alongside hopefully rave reviews by travelers, when they get back home, will encourage more to book a vacation to Kenya.

The Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) Chief Executive Muriithi Ndegwa was at hand with other officials to welcome the charter flight at JKIA where he also used the opportunity to brief the media on the tourist board’s efforts to increase visitor numbers from new and emerging markets, and what measures KTB had taken in past months to make this event happen.

Presently, visitors have to use Gulf-based airlines to connect via their hubs to Nairobi or else link up with Kenya Airways’ nonstop flights from Hong Kong or Bangkok, which, however, drives the cost of the air fares up and limits a greater market penetration due to the relatively higher cost.

They will be using a Boeing 777 aircraft which has been fitted with 225 economy, 28 business and eight first class seats. Gatwick Airport’s chief commercial officer, Guy Stephenson has said that they are happy to welcome the airline and with South Korea being a fast growing economy, in fact the fastest in Asia it is an important growth market for the UK. He explained that it is therefore important to have links between the country and they hope to build a good relationship with the airline.

There are many tourists who also like visiting the country. There are a good number of tourist attractions including the capitals of Buyeo, Seoul and Gyeongju and there are natural attractions such as caves, beaches and peaks. The flights also provide connections to Australia and the Far East and so provide additional options for those wanting to travel long distances. The general manager of Korean Air’s London Office, Jeong Soo Park, explained that they were happy to be able to increase their flights to the UK so they could increase their range for business customers. He also explained that they were happy to be able to give leisure customers the ability to travel to Asia.

Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. hosted a dinner on Saturday night at the provincial Capitol for airline and Korean travel officials who arrived on board the maiden ZestAir direct flight from Korea to Bacolod Saturday with 120 tourists on board, most of whom came to play golf.

It was piloted by Sunny Chan, a St. John’s Institute Class ’91 graduate.

This will be followed by 14 more flights arriving every Saturday and Wednesday.

Arturo Alejandrino, Zest Air director, said he hopes that these direct flights from Korea will lead to more in the future.

In December 2009 ZestAir started with two flights a week to Kalibo, Aklan, and now has 14 a week, landing there from Korea, Taipeh and China, he said.

“We would like to replicate this in Negros Occidental, which is a beautiful province with a lot to offer,” Alejandrino added.

He said they were starting with golf tours to Negros Occidental but hope to expand to other tourists attractions in the province.

After Aklan, Bacolod and Negros Occidental are second on their list of tourist destinations in the region, Alejandrino said.

He said the 180–seater Zest Air planes will be initially flying in Korean tourists twice a week.

“But we hope to increase the number of flights coming in to Negros Occidental from Korea and other areas,” he said.

Indeed, the country’s appetite for high-end labels has led to the christening of a Louis Vuitton (LVMH.PA) handbag as the “three-second bag” for its ubiquity, with one spotted every few seconds on the streets of the capital Seoul.

A survey from management consultants McKinsey & Co. shows South Koreans are less bashful than other Asians about flaunting their bling. Only 26 percent of those surveyed said they felt guilty about showing off luxury goods, compared with 49 percent of Japanese and 38 percent of Chinese respondents.

Now, the fashion conscious in this country of 50 million people will be able to shop for designer items alongside instant noodles at their local Seven-Eleven convenience store during the New Year’s holiday season.

It is not the first time Seven-Eleven, whose familiar green and red facade is on every street corner, has offered luxury goods.

The chain stocked Gucci shoulder bags and wallets during South Korea’s Thanksgiving festival in September and sold a third more than expected.

“It was a big success, and we are thinking of expanding our luxury gift line to other accessories for the New Year,” said Seven-Eleven marketing official Cho Yun-jung.

Other mass-market outlets are also getting in the game. To meet demand, the local branch of British superstore Tesco Plc (TSCO.L) and homegrown discounter Lotte Mart, part of Lotte Shopping (023530.KS), are selling Chanel, Prada, Ferragamo and Balenciaga brands.

“Many of my friends received one or more Chanel bags as wedding gifts and seeing them carry one made me want to get one too,” said Gina Ryu, a 31-year old restaurateur, who already owns Fendi and Vuitton totes and has put her name down for a Chanel model at Tesco’s Homeplus.

Chanel’s classic flap bags sell from 5 million won to almost 7 million won ($6,200) at local department stores and are frequently given to new brides by the groom’s family.

The Chanel boutique in upmarket retailer Shinsegae’s (004170.KS) store in a ritzy part of southern Seoul sold goods worth 460 million won ($406,557) on its opening day last year, the second-biggest single-day store sales in South Korea’s fashion retail history.

Homeplus caters to a segment of shoppers who are willing to overlook inconveniences such as long waiting periods and a limited range. The retailer gets its inventories from an intermediary who goes to Europe to re-stock.

“Our luxury operation is small, a minor player within a much larger luxury market and it is aimed at certain group of consumers,” said Homeplus official Ku Do-yun.

Officials with Gucci, Feregamo and Louis Vuitton in Seoul all decline to comment on the sales at venues like Seven-Eleven. A LVMH spokeswoman in Paris also declined to comment.