tourism industry

china's ban on group tour packages to southkorea came into force on wednesday. it's part of a widening retaliation campaignagainst seoul's deployment of a u.s. missile defense system deemed necessary against northkorean threats. our oh jung-hee headed to the usually bustlingdistrict of myeong-dong to gauge the impact... and to highlight what korea can do to minimizethe shock.

tourism industry , about two weeks ago, the authorities in beijingtold chinese travel agencies to stop selling all tour packages to korea starting march15th. over the following week, korea's main gateway,incheon international airport, saw passenger numbers fall by 180-thousand.

visitor numbers at korea's royal palaces andshrines plunged to about 60-percent of normal levels... and several cruise ships canceledtrips to korea's southern port city of busan and the resort island of jeju-do. those cancellations meant the loss of a fewhundred-thousand tourists. "but this could just be the beginning,...as the policy goes into effect on wednesday. the number of chinese tourists to korea isexpected to drop exponentially, dealing a significant blow to korea's tourism industry." the shopping district of myeong-dong, in centralseoul, isn't as crowded as it used to be. a couple of store clerks who didn't want togive their names told arirang... they're seeing

around 80-percent fewer chinese customers. they're choosing to speak japanese to bringpeople in. "before, about 5 out of 10 foreign visitorsto myeong-dong were chinese, but that's dropped to 2 or 3 out of 10. myeong-dong shops that have depended on chinesecustomers have been hit hard. i think it's now time to shift our attentionto customers from other countries like japan or southeast asia, as they make up the otherhalf of foreign visitors." duty-free shops -- where chinese touristsused to account for at least 70-percent of sales -- are already making the shift.

the big ones are signing partnerships withtravel agencies in japan, southeast asia and the middle east. four restaurants at the galleria duty freestore have had their menus certified as muslim-friendly. some say this is a chance for korea to changeits tourism environment... to attract visitors from a variety of countries. "korea's tour agencies have led ch inese touriststo shop particularly in duty-free shops. but that's not the main part of tourism activity. we've got to focus on quality tourism reflectinglocal authenticity or local culture or some contents."

that means... the focus has to be giving visitorsa first-hand experience of korean culture through activities... and developing originalcultural products. oh jung-hee, arirang news.