South Korea will invite officials of ten foreign cruise lines to promote the domestic tourism industry, which is reeling from a Chinese ban on tours to the country over the deployment of a U.S. THAAD antimissile system.
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said on Monday that it is holding the “2017 Korea Cruise Port-Sales in Seoul” on Tuesday and Wednesday at a hotel in the capital city.
The ministry plans to attract two million cruise tourists this year. However, it may be a tough goal to achieve as cruise ships departing from China have canceled 380 stopovers to South Korean ports this year since Beijing implemented a group tour ban for South Korea on March 15th.
Last year, over one-point-nine million tourists visited the country aboard cruise ships, 91 percent of whom were Chinese tourists.