About ITOP
INTER-ISLANDS
TOURISM POLICY FORUM
Tourism is a basic industry of the 21st century as well as one of the national strategic industries leading to culture. It is not only a high value-added industry with huge economic impact of income creation, job creation and foreign currency earnings but also a peaceful industry to extend mutual understandings by experiencing other cultures and history.
Through cultural and personal exchanges, tourism gives the opportunities to understand other histories, customs and arts one another and plays a major role in promoting peace. For those reasons, tourism is called as 'Passport toward peace'. Tourism which can link peace and economy is a cultural phenomenon representing the civilization of this century.
Recognizing these importance, Inter-Islands Tourism Policy Forum was founded in 1997 with the attendance of 4 provincial governments of Bali, Indonesia, Hainan, China, Okinawa, Japan and Jeju, South Korea led by Jeju. This Forum is aimed at exploring the world tourism market jointly by bring together islands that have cultural sympathy and similar tourism structure and policy. This forum has become 10 member countries and 3 observer countries.
Characteristics
This organization is a consultative body of regional government for consulting and supporting common tourism policies.
01
Develops various common tourism products of islands
02
Develops tourism products to grow islands economies and implements study and research for better management
03
Fully utilizes the tourism resources and develops concrete action plans
04
Enhances the general living standards of member islands by economic development and globalization and contributes to inter-islands exchanges by continuous tourism development
05
Establishes cooperative ways to cope with the problems involving tourism and environment such as the temperature increase and climate change
