The Seoul Tourism Organisation

A lot can happen in almost forty years. It's true for Korea, and it's also true for Maureen O'Crowley, who first lived in Seoul as a high school teenager. The first time I came to Seoul, I followed my father in the early 70s. An Air Force officer, he served as the US liaison to the Korean Ministry of National Defence. It was a city of five million people then, it was buzzing, but it was not in a good place, she recalls of the South Korean capital.

As he worked closely with Koreans on a regular basis, O'Crowley's father encouraged her to get to know as much as she could about the culture and people of their new home country. Being the good daughter that she was, she gladly followed his advice and filled those two years with all things Korean. I spent many happy days exploring Seoul, making friends, learning Korean traditions, recipes and the language. In short, I fell in love, she says.

It was almost fate when O'Crowley's father retired to Los Angeles a place with a huge Korean community, which gave her access to the food, TV and language she had fallen for.I played a game looking for a job in Korea in the newspaper. And one came up with Korean Airlines. My parents thought I was crazy going for it. I had no experience but I was hired, and off I went.

After a year O'Crowley went back to school in the US, majored in tourism and set up her own travel company. In 2006, Korea came knocking again, this time with a role at the LA office of the Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO).

Travelling to Korea was always easy for me, she says. But actually working for KTO, I saw the challenges. Trying to promote a country internationally; to educate a market that didn't know the destination, that's sleeping in the shadows, and whose domestic tour operators have no faith in their own product people who didn't believe in what they had to offer was hugely frustrating.

Then, in May 2008, shortly after the establishment of the Seoul Tourism Organisation (STO), O'Crowley was recruited by CEO Samuel Koo to fill an executive position in the international marketing department. I didn't think twice: I left balmy Los Angeles and followed my heart back to Seoul. Circumstances were much different the second time around, but thanks to good friends and helpful co-workers, I quickly settled into an exciting new lifestyle living and working in Seoul.

Source = campaignasia