Korea and Pacific Island consortium launch Korea-Pacific Islands Trade and Tourism Promotion Project

South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) representative Park Jae-a reported the "true goal" of the recently established Korea-Pacific Islands Trade and Tourism Promotion Project is to "set up tourism infrastructure to help Koreans steadily visit the region after the two year period" (The Korea Times, 17-May-2019). The project will see the South Korean Government provide USD1 million in development assistance to Fiji, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu over two years. The agreement aims to support long term outbound and inbound tourism projects as well as trade for the South Pacific. South Korea will also "make efforts to raise public awareness of those countries here and send as many outbound tourists as possible there over the next two years" said Park.