With Putin visiting Pyongyang this month there has been a whole heap of new interesting in visiting the country, as well as the seemingly eternal question, when will North Korea fully reopen for tourism?
Sadly this is a question that we still cannot answer, we can though theorize, as well as give our own take on things.
What did the Putin visit mean for North Korean tourism?
While Putin’s visit to Pyongyang has indeed raised hopes for travel to North Korea it is highly unlikely that unlike during the visit of Lavrov tourism would have been barely if at all discussed.
This though does not mean it will not affect the industry. From our view point the visit of Putin could help propel more tourists from the Russian Federation into DPR Korea and thus help with there overall reopening of the country.
It should be noted though that this is the best case scenario, with the worst case being that tourism returns under Cold War type lines and only includes Russians and Chinese. We do not think this will be the case, but it sure is a strange world right now.
When will North Korea fully reopen for tourism – The YPT view?
Back in April and at the invitation of our partners from DPR Korea we went to meet them in Beijing, something not all companies have gad the time, or energy to do. We cant go into every facet of our meetings, but a lot of prep work was done to plan for our return to the DPRK.
We also got to have a frank and honest discussion with our partners about when they felt the country7 may reopen. In their opinion this could have happened by July, or early August. Now this was something that caused some controversy as certain actors said this wasn’t true because they “had not heard anything”. Well if you don’t ask you don’t get information. And while it looks like this deadline will not be met, we do fully believe and see that things are moving in the right direction.
So, when might the country reopen fully? We are genuinely hopeful that something will happen by September, even if it something as small as tour operators going into the country.
Should this not happen then the chances of a 2024 reopening are all but gone. In this respects we could be looking at a March opening in time for the birthday of President Kim Il Sung in April.
Are YPT ready for a reposing of North Korea?
YPT have spent this year fully planning to be ready for the opening of the DPRK. This has included meetings with partners, the hiring of staff, as well as the string up of offices in country.
With this in mind we are probably in a better position than our competitors, particularly those who focus solely on North Korea. Because we go to different places, we can hire people now, rather than just being reliant on its reopening.
The same can be said for other companies that do not prioritize North Korea. Most of these have not only not even been back to China, but ,maybe falsely think they can either start afresh, or take over where they left out. This is unlikely to be the case, with us already seeing many changes within the country.
We can though assure you that we are very much ready for the timely resumption of tours to North Korea.
You can check out YPT’s tentative program of tours to North Korea on the following link.
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