The 11-meber IOC Evaluation Commission, which is led by Sweden's Gunilla Lindberg, landed at Korea's Incheon International Airport and were greeted by senior members of Pyeongchang 2018, including chairman and chief executive Yang Ho Cho (pictured).

A group of several hundred Pyeongchang supporters were also present to demonstrate the public's backing for the bid.

It is the third consecutive time that Pyeongchang have bid for the Games, having narrowly lost to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics and Sochi for 2014.

The IOC Evaluation Commission will conduct a four day tour of Pyeongchang, inspecting the existing winter sports infrastructure, South Korean officials claim, is "tailor made for a Winter Games".

The site tour includes a visit to the newly completed $1.4 billion (£873 million) Alpensia Resort – a state-of-the-art year-round sports resort that is the centre piece of Pyeongchang 2018's Winter Games Plan, and the focus of the city's vision to be the winter sports hub in Asia.

In addition to the Alpensia Resort - the mountain venue cluster designed to host skiing and sliding events - the Commission will also visit Gangneung, the second venue cluster that will host the ice events.

Pyeongchang had been decorated to welcome the Commission and they were met by another group of supporters when they arrived in the city from Seoul.



Among the initiatives that Pyeongchang is hoping to impress the inspectors with is a special mobile telephone application that they can use whilst touring Pyeongchang.

The new interactive "Pyeongchang 2018" smart phone application offers the Evaluation Commission Members information about the bid's themes that were presented in the Candidate File such as venues, environment and accommodation.

"It would be a privilege for us to host the Winter Games in 2018, and we look forward to sharing our vision with the IOC Evaluation Commission this week," said Cho.

"We believe a Winter Games in PyeongChang can offer the Olympic Movement something unique and special - a new market for winter sports in Asia, home to 60 per cent of the world's population.

"We are delighted to show the IOC this week that we have kept our promises and we are delivering on our commitments to create Asia's first long-term and sustainable winter sports legacy, providing the Olympic Movement and winter sports new growth and new potential, a world of 'New Horizons'."

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