JEONJU -- South Korea's southwestern city of Jeonju will host next year's annual conference of the Tourism Promotion Organization for Asia Pacific Cities (TPO), officials said Friday.

TPO, the largest international organization related to tourism in the Asia-Pacific region, was established in 2002 with the goal of developing the tourism industry through the formation of a network among regional cities. It has 136 cities in 16 countries, including South Korea, China and Japan, and 54 private organizations as members.Next year's TPO conference is scheduled to be held in Jeonju, about 245 kilometers south of Seoul, for four days in June, with the attendance of about 700 people from some 100 cities of 16 countries and 50 private organizations, according to the city government.

During the conference, various official events, invitation events for travel agencies and travel exhibitions will be held under the theme of "sustainable tourism led by cities," it said.

Jeonju currently serves as TPO's co-chair city and hosted a TPO forum in 2016.

"The TPO conference is expected to offer an opportunity to widely publicize Jeonju, one of the most traditional Korean cities, and discuss ways to revitalize the tourism industry hit hard by COVID-19," a city government official said. (Yonhap)