Latest news with #RussianTourists
National Post
11 hours ago
- Business
- National Post
North Korea will open its biggest tour site next week, though it still largely blocks foreigners
Article content SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea next week will open a signature coastal tourist site that it says will usher in a new era in its tourism industry, though there is no word on when the country will fully reopen to foreign visitors. Article content The Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist zone has hotels and other accommodations for nearly 20,000 guests who can swim in the sea, engage in sports and recreation activities and eat at restaurants and cafeterias on site, state media said. Article content Article content North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured the site and cut the inaugural tape at a lavish ceremony Tuesday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday. Article content Article content Kim said its construction would be recorded as 'one of the greatest successes this year' and called the site 'the proud first step' toward realizing the government's policy of developing tourism, according to KCNA. Article content The Wonsan-Kalma beach resort is North Korea's biggest tourist site. KCNA said North Korea will begin service for domestic tourists next Tuesday. It didn't say when North Korea will start receiving foreign tourists, but Russian officials said later Thursday that the first Russian tour to the site will happen in July. Article content Observers say the resort likely required a huge investment from North Korea's limited budget, so it eventually will have to accept Chinese and other foreign tourists too to break even. Article content Kim has been pushing to make the country a tourism hub as part of efforts to revive the ailing economy, and the Wonsan-Kalma zone is one of his most talked-about tourism projects. KCNA reported North Korea will confirm plans to build large tourist sites in other parts of the country, too. Article content Article content But North Korea hasn't fully lifted a ban on foreign tourists that it imposed in early 2020 to guard against the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts say North Korea has been slow to resume its international tourism because of remaining pandemic curbs, a flare-up of tensions with the U.S. and South Korea in recent years and worries about Western tourists spreading a negative image of its system. Article content Starting from February 2024, North Korea has already been accepting Russian tourists to other areas amid the booming military and other partnerships between the two countries, but Chinese group tours, which made up more than 90% of visitors before the pandemic, remain stalled.
CNA
a day ago
- Business
- CNA
North Korea opens landmark coastal Wonsan tourist zone
SEOUL: North Korea has completed construction of a massive tourist zone on its east coast, state media reported on Thursday (Jun 26), a key project driven by leader Kim Jong Un for years to promote tourism. With "great satisfaction", Kim attended an inaugural ceremony for the Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist area that could accommodate about 20,000 visitors and said the country would build more large-scale tourist zones swiftly, KCNA news agency said. Kim has been rebuilding the seaside city of Wonsan, a vacation destination for locals, to turn it into a billion-dollar tourist hotspot. Development plans for Wonsan have mushroomed since they were first announced in 2014. However, while tourism is one of a narrow range of cash sources for North Korea not targeted by United Nations sanctions, the reclusive state did not have a major foreign partner for the Wonsan project against the backdrop of sanctions over its weapons programmes. The tourist zone will open for domestic guests from Jul 1, KCNA said, without mentioning foreign tourists. North Korea sealed its borders in 2020 at the start of the pandemic but has been slowly lifting restrictions since 2023. It has allowed Russian tourist groups into the country but its capital and other parts of the country remain closed to regular tourism, though in April it held a marathon event hosting foreign runners. Moscow and Pyongyang, both economically and politically isolated, have drawn closer as North Korea has deployed thousands of troops and supplied ammunition, artillery and missiles for Russia's Ukraine war. The Russian ambassador to North Korea and embassy staff were invited as special guests for the Wonsan ceremony, according to KCNA. The two countries have agreed to expand cooperation on tourism, restarting a direct passenger train service between their capitals for the first time since 2020. "Kim Jong Un expressed belief that the wave of the happiness to be raised in the Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist area would enhance its attractive name as a world-level tourist cultural resort", KCNA said.
