S. Korea, China, Japan pledge cooperation to boost tourism exchanges to 40 mln people by 2030

SEOUL, Sept. 11 (Yonhap) -- The tourism ministers of South Korea, China and Japan have pledged to cooperate in boosting annual trilateral people-to-people exchanges to 40 million by 2030, the South Korean ministry said Wednesday.

The pledge was included in a joint statement adopted by the three ministers at the end of their two-day meeting in Kobe, Japan, on Wednesday.

It marks the first meeting of its kind since the previous gathering in Incheon in August 2019.

During the latest meeting, South Korean Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Yu In-chon, Chinese Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism Zhang Zheng and Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Tetsuo Saito also discussed detailed plans to facilitate the post-pandemic tourism recovery, promote sustainable tourism and encourage tourism in regional areas.

The ministers, in particular, set a common goal of increasing the annual number of travelers among the three countries from the current 30 million to 40 million by 2030, pledging mutual cooperation to achieve the target.

The target number was first set in a joint declaration adopted by leaders of the three countries in Seoul in May.

Before the trilateral meeting, Yu held bilateral talks with Japan's tourism minister Tuesday, addressing the imbalance between the number of South Korean tourists visiting Japan and Japanese tourists visiting South Korea.

Yu is also scheduled to meet with China's Zhang Zheng in Kyoto on Thursday to discuss strategies for combating cheap but poor quality package tours and other agenda items.

sshim@yna.co.kr
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