Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism visits Busan Port to discuss cruise cooperation plan (Korea)

On the 13th, officials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan and the Japan Cruise Revitalization Association, along with a group of professors from a university in Osaka, visited the port of Busan in South Korea to discuss ways to cooperate on cruises between the two countries.
According to the Busan Port Authority (BPA) on the 13th, the delegation boarded the Italian cruise ship Costa Serena from Fukuoka and entered the Busan Port International Passenger Terminal at around 7 am.
The Japanese delegation received an explanation from BPA about the cruise facilities and current status of passengers at Busan Port, and discussed ways of mutual cooperation.
The visiting group included people from all over Japan, including Ishikawa, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Kobe, Osaka, Hiroshima, Karatsu, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Miyazaki.
It is reported that various discussions on cooperation in the cruise industry were held with participants from ports in the country and abroad.
In October 2015, BPA established a cruise cooperation body (Japan-Korea Five Ports Liaison Committee) with Kanazawa, Sakaiminato, Fukuoka and Maizuru.
) and is promoting joint sales. More than 50% of the foreign cruise tourists (140,000 people) who visited Busan Port last year were Japanese, and Korean travel agencies are also promoting Japanese
Cruise exchanges between Japan and Korea are gradually expanding, with the development of new cruise products that call at the port. Hong Sung-Jun, head of the BPA operations department, said, "Busan Port has long been a Japanese port.
"We will continue to strengthen cooperation with many Japanese ports in various ways and promote mutual development through the cruise industry," he said.