TWO tourism and culture experts from South Korea are currently in Negros Occidental to explore the potentials of the province which they can promote in their country.
Provincial Supervising Tourism operations officer Cristine Mansinares said Junghwan Kim of Konkuk University and Yoonsun Lee of The Namdo Folk Society arrived in the province on Monday after going to Kalibo in Aklan for the Ati-Atihan Festival.
Mansinares said they are here to do a familiarization and immersion as well as observe some local festivals like the Dinagsa Festival of Cadiz City and Our Lady of Peace Festival of La Carlota City which they can invite for cultural exchange in South Korea.
“They are here to discover more of Negros folk arts and culture as well as tourism potentials for possible collaborations with their organizations,” she said, adding that “this is another ideal avenue to promote the province in the international scene.”
The Korean visitors, who are professors and businessmen, are also travelling around Asia as part of their researches on “important and salient things” in the region.
Thus, Negros Occidental might be part of the studies related to their fields, Mansinares said.
The Provincial Government she said continues its efforts to establish connections with other countries especially in the Asia as one measure to strengthen ties with foreign private sector.
“Tourism cannot thrive without the private sector's support,” Mansinares stressed, adding that more collaboration with the private sector would impact positively the local tourism industry.
In 2017, the two foreign experts’ organizations had invited San Carlos City to perform their Pintaflores Festival in their festivity in Korea.
Mansinares said they will continue to promote Negros Occidental especially to Asean countries with direct flights to the province or nearby places.
“It could be direct flights to Panay or nearest islands like Cebu which will cater to more number of foreign tourists,” she said, adding that foreign guests comprise only six percent of the province’s total tourist arrival in 2016 “so we are working on increasing it the coming years.”