The former army chief last week urged people to watch the mega-hit “Descendants of the Sun” because he said it conveys a sense of patriotism and sacrifice for one’s country. The series tells the story of a gun-toting soldier who saves lives in a faraway land.

KTO president Jung Chang-soo said the agency would try and convince actor Song Joong-ki, who has been appointed as the KTO’s presenter, to honour the request of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn, meanwhile, said the actor’s visit could encourage more Thais to visit South Korea seeing as the number of visitors from Thailand had dropped to 370,000 last year, from about 470,000 in 2014, partly due to an outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) virus.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said he has called on the TAT to promote the joint production of films in order to boost tourism in both countries. In response, Yuthasak said the two agencies would discuss the issue and come to a conclusion by the end of the year.

“Dr Somkid’s suggestion is inspired by the success of the film ‘Lost in Thailand’, which ignited a boom in Chinese visitors. Similarly, we could make ‘Love in Thailand’ since a lot of South Korean couples come here for their honeymoon,” the TAT chief said.

The KTO and TAT are scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding today to boost cooperation between the two nations, as well as to combat “zero-dollar” tour packages, which are tours sold at very cheap prices but then visitors are pressured to buy expensive products and services on the side. The practice is considered to be damaging to the image of both countries.

The two organisations also aim to exchange tourism personnel.

Yuthasak said the two agencies have set targets to increase the number of South Korean visitors to Thailand from 1.37 million last year to 1.83 million by 2018, and Thai travellers to South Korea from 300,000 to 500,000 during the same period.

Tourism package

At a meeting with the Korea-Thai Committee on Economic Cooperation on Tuesday, Somkid also called on South Korea to come up with “Korea Plus 1” tourism packages by adding an additional destination like Busan, citing the success of packages for visitors to Japan that include a trip to Fukuoka.

Meanwhile, a TAT official told reporters that an increase in Thai tourists visiting Japan could be the reason why not very many were going to South Korea.

Yuthasak said the TAT and KTO would also try to push for more flights between the two countries. Since last month, 17 flights have been cut, bringing the number down to 758 per month.

Last year, South Korean visitors were the fourth largest group of visitors to Thailand, after Chinese, Malaysian and Japanese travellers. As many as 1.37 million South Koreans visited Thailand last year, recording a growth of 22.3 per cent from 2014. During the first two months of this year, the number of South Korean visitors to Thailand rose by 19 per cent to hit 332,000 visitors.