Agent Says N. Korea Tourism to Reopen After Kim Death

A tour organizer has said that North Korea will reopen to tourists on January 10, less than a month after strongman Kim Jong-Il died.

Kim died on December 17 from a heart attack at the age of 69, prompting a 13-day mourning period in the communist country that culminated Thursday in a huge memorial service for the late leader.

About Medical Tourism
Medical tourism can be broadly defined as provision of 'cost effective' private medical care in collaboration with the tourism industry for patients needing surgical and other forms of specialized treatment.

"We have just been informed by our Korean partners that the DPRK (North Korea) will open to tourists from January 10th," Koryo Group, a Beijing-based travel agency that organises tours to the North, said in a statement.

North Korea closes to tourists during part of December and January every year, Simon Cockerell, Koryo's managing director, told AFP.

But when Kim's father Kim Il-Sung passed away in 1994, the country closed to tourists for 100 days, he said, which had prompted speculation the reclusive state would be sealed off for longer than the normal winter period this year.

Medical Tourism � The Road Ahead
Medical Tourism has become a serious enterprise in India over the last two years. However some hospitals have been practicing it for quite a few years.

At the time of the elder Kim's death, though, tourism to North Korea was a very small industry, whereas the sector is significantly bigger now, Cockerell said.

Around 3,000 Western tourists visited North Korea in 2010, he said, and many more Chinese travellers tour the country every year.

S.Africa's Double Pronged Marketing Scheme Focuses on Tourism and Wines
The busload of Swedes sweep onto the 326-year-old South African wine farm for a wine tasting visit that marries vineyard tourism with bottom-line marketing.

North Korea began accepting Western tourists in the late 1980s, after decades of only taking in visitors from Communist and non-aligned nations.

Koryo's first group of 20 tourists next year will arrive too soon to celebrate the late Kim Jong-Il's birthday on February 16, which has previously been marked with giant arrangements of red begonia, figure skating and synchronised swimming.

Piedmont in Italy Seeks Foodies to Boost Tourism
The Piedmont region in northwest Italy is bidding to become a new destination for food and wine lovers even though it was long mocked for its poor weather

"This will be the first year that the North will celebrate Kim's birthday without him. Perhaps they'll tone down the synchronised swimming and do something more sombre," Cockerell said.

North Korea also marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-Sung on April 15.

"It's not clear what will happen, but there's no way that North Korea will let this big anniversary pass without mass events of some kind, dances in the city, and a citizens' parade and military parade, off limits to tourists."

Source-AFP