Brand USA South Korea Hosts Successful Familiarization Tours
Travel agents from South Korea participated in Brand USA’s travel trade familiarization tours, enabling them to offer their clients firsthand knowledge about traveling to the United States.
Brand USA, partnering with Korean Air, South Korea’s flagship carrier, sponsored an October 19-26 tour to ensure travel agents can develop tour programs and packages to coincide with the airline’s launch of non-stop service between Seoul and Boston on April 12, 2019.
The tour also included business-to-business sessions in Boston for travel agents and Boston attraction representatives to develop new opportunities and increase outreach.
Meanwhile, the 2018 South Korea Brand USA specialist familiarization tour to the U.S. brought together 48 South Korea participants who divided into five separate groups for their trip, held October 22 to November 5. The participants in the separate groups visited Las Vegas and Hawai'i, New York City and Philadelphia, Miami and Grapevine, Florida, Atlanta and New Orleans, or San Francisco and Arizona.
The tour's success was a tribute to Brand USA's partners who sponsored airline tickets, accommodation and ground transport: Air Canada, Alamo, American Airlines, California Travel & Tourism Commission, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, Hawai'i Tourism Authority, Hertz, Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board, NYC and Company, Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau, and United Airlines.
The participating travel agents regularly had attended bi-monthly seminars for the USA Specialist Program, an intensive education campaign organized by Brand USA South Korea to train travel agents about the limitless travel destinations in the United States. A total of 115 South Korean travel agents have been certified as USA Specialists since the program was launched in 2015.
In other news, Brand USA South Korea also partnered with Air Canada to launch a USA Music Trip marketing campaign. The initiative follows the premiere of Brand USA's second giant-screen film, “America’s Musical Journey.” The film received rave reviews at the Sept. 17 premiere at CGV Cheongdam CINECITY in Seoul, the film’s first showing in Asia.
On the campaign, Brand USA and Air Canada will collaborate in the campaign with major online travel agencies and display advertising banners featuring a USA Music Map to reach potential travel customers. The campaign is targeted to promote Air Canada’s convenient network to music-themed U.S destinations. It will focus on cities in which each music genre originated: Seattle (grunge), Los Angeles (pop), New York City (hip hop), Chicago (blues), Atlanta (R&B), Memphis (rock ‘n roll), New Orleans (jazz), and Miami (Latin).