Korean tourists book online, stay in budget hotels

KOREAN tourists book their own trips online and stay in budget hotels.

Regional Director Rowena Montecillo of the Department of Tourism in Central Visayas (DOT-7) said yesterday that this trend was one of the factors of the slight 0.62 percent drop in Korean tourists from January to June 2012 as compared to the same period last year.

The DOT data showed a slight decrease in Korean tourists in the first half of the year with only 34,535 Koreans visiting Cebu as compared to 34,750 for the same period last year.

Montecillo assured the tour and travel operators that there’s no truth to rumors that the Koreans, the biggest tourist group in Cebu, were no longer interested in visiting the region.

Montecillo said the Cebu Korean Association during a recent meeting with her told her that the slight dip in tourists occurred in the months from March to June, which were non-peak season for Korean travelers.

“They told me that they expect more Koreans to come starting from July onwards. We will continue to get Koreans here because we have what they look for in a destination,” said Montecillo.

She also said that the new travel trend among Koreans also affected the statistics of the tourism department.

“I was informed that Koreans now book travels online by themselves and stay in budget hotels. And so what we want to do now is to also get data from these establishments which are mostly not accredited by the DOT,” said Montecillo./Reporter Aileen

Garcia-Yap