The emergency martial law declared this Tuesday afternoon, Spanish time, by the president of South Korea, Yoon Suk-yeol, has taken by surprise a delegation of municipal representatives from Seville, Córdoba and Málaga that has been in attendance since Monday in the South Korean capital, Seoul, to promote Andalusian cities as a tourist destination. The representatives had just finished the day’s agenda when they learned the news. “At first we thought it was fake news, but then we spoke to the embassy and they informed us that it was true and that we should go to the hotel to wait,” explained the Councilor for Tourism of the Malaga City Council, Jacobo Florido, who has traveled to the Asian country with the general director of Tourism of Malaga, Jonathan Gómez, in addition to the councilors of Tourism of Seville, Angie Moreno, and that of Córdoba, Marián Aguilar and technical staff from the different consistories.
With a tired look and some concern, Florido has assured through a video that the situation in the city is “tensely calm.” “This is a very lively city, with a lot of traffic and now you don’t see any cars on the street. Right now we don’t know what the situation is. “We are calm and we have already spoken with our relatives,” the councilor stressed from the hotel lobby where they are staying in a video distributed by the Malaga council in which he spoke in a low voice because in South Korea it is eight hours longer than in Spain and, therefore, it is the middle of the night. “They are calm, but without leaving the hotel, which is what the ambassador in South Korea has recommended. This is what our delegate has transmitted to us,” indicates a municipal spokesperson for the Seville City Council in reference to the last communication maintained with the Seville delegate for Tourism, Angie Moreno.
The delegation, which is accompanied by technicians from the respective tourism departments of the displaced councilors – six people in total, two per city – is in permanent contact with the Spanish Embassy in the Asian country and with the South Korean Chamber of Commerce, which is the one who had planned the trip for them. On their agenda they had planned a meeting with the mayor of Seoul for this Wednesday. “We assume that it is not going to be carried out,” explains the Sevillian spokesperson.
The intention of the Andalusian delegation was to return to Spain on Thursday night, although the trip for now is unknown. “The intention is that this idea can be fulfilled. And if we have to return sooner, then we are waiting for what the embassy tells us,” said Florido, who was grateful for the attention and information provided by the Spanish ambassador in South Korea, Guillermo Kirkpatrick, who has given them recommended not to leave the hotel. From Córdoba, another interlocutor from his City Council tells this newspaper that he has just hung up with the Córdoba councilor Marián Aguilar who has told him that “they are trying to bring forward the return to this Wednesday.”
YONHAP (EFE)
The objective of this trip is to promote the cities of Seville, Córdoba and Málaga in South Korea, with the aim of attracting this long-distance market to the three Andalusian capitals, according to the presentation of the conference that took place at the end November in the capital of Malaga. The councilors’ agenda included meetings and presentations of the destinations before the National University of Seoul or the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Korea, as well as with the main tour operators in the Asian country.
The Malaga delegation had participated this Tuesday in the inauguration of a mural alluding to Malaga – with symbols of the city such as the biznaga, the cathedral, the citadel or the striped shirt that refers to Picasso – made by the artist Kato installed in the district of Gwanak, where Seoul National University is located, in an event in which staff from the Seoul Chamber of Commerce in Spain also participated. Afterwards, they attended the opening of the Picasso photography exhibition in Malaga, a project that has the support of the Cervantes Institute of Seoul and the Spanish Embassy in Korea, which has images taken by the Hungarian-born photographer Juan Gyenes on loan from the Museum. Birthplace of Pablo Ruiz Picasso.
