1. With a maximum of 1.9 million Koreans expected to head abroad during the Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) holidays in 2017, the Foreign Ministry will hold a campaign at Incheon International Airport, a talk concert and a meeting with travel agencies for communication with the public on the importance of safe overseas travel and to offer them information on safety situations of foreign countries. Furthermore, it will stand ready to respond to any incidents and accidents involving Koreans abroad during the holidays and thereby to better ensure the safety of the Korean nationals visiting or residing in foreign countries.

2. During the “campaign on safe overseas travel” held at the departure section of Incheon International Airport on September 28, Ambassador for Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs Han Dong-man and collegian supporters for safe overseas travel of the Foreign Ministry handed out travel first aid kits and guide books, among others.

° Ambassador Han noted that “Traveling overseas with family and relatives during the long holidays is expected to offer busy citizens an opportunity to energize themselves. The Foreign Ministry, through its close, emergency contact system with the 24/7 Consular Call Center at 82-2-3210-0404 and all of its overseas missions, will do its best to ensure safe overseas travel for Korean nationals.

※ The “collegian supporters for safe overseas travel” have been recruited on a biannual basis since 2010 to carry out diverse, online and off-line promotional activities designed to raise safety awareness of Korean travelers abroad and spread relevant information.

3. In a similar move, “a talk concert on safe overseas travel” was successfully held at Cheonggye Plaza, downtown Seoul, on September 24, moderated by two TV announcers. In particular, the event, which brought together Director-General for Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs Kim Wan-joong, the producer of an overseas travel program at Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), and a foreign cast member of Korean TV shows, took the form of dialogue, during which the participants shared with the public safety precautions to take during overseas trips as well as experiences of shooting TV shows overseas.

4. In addition, on September 29, ahead of the Chuseok holidays, Ambassador for Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs Han Dong-man will preside over a safety meeting with travel agencies. The meeting will bring together officials of such relevant government agencies as the Counterterrorism Center at the Office for Government Policy Coordination, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as representatives from the Korea Association of Travel Agents and travel agencies. The participants will review ways that relevant government agencies can work closely together to ensure the safety of the Korean travelers abroad during the holidays and ask those travelers to cooperate in that regard, including by abiding by laws of their host countries, acquainting themselves with safety precautions and thereby raising their own safety awareness.

5. During the Chuseok holidays, the Foreign Ministry will remain on-call and in contact with all of its overseas missions. The Consular Call Center will be open around the clock, receiving reports on incidents and accidents and providing interpretation services in six languages -- English, Chinese, Japanese, French, Russian and Spanish. Travelers are advised to check the travel advisories for their destinations at the website on safe overseas travel at www.0404.go.kr and through a mobile application before their departure. For those Koreans who do not use roaming, text-messaging services and do choose to use local phone numbers in their countries, such information as travel advisories, emergency contact numbers of overseas missions, and others that they need to pay attention to will be available on the Kakao Talk Plus Friend platform.

※ When the name of a country is typed in the chat window of Kakao Talk Plus Friend, information on safe overseas travel automatically comes up.


* unofficial translation