Korea rebrands to attract 20m tourists
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South Korea has launched a new tourism brand, as it targets a sharp rise in international arrivals.
The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) recently unveiled its new brand strapline, ‘Imagine your Korea’, through which it aims to attract 20 million tourists. The new brand is intended to “promote the various charms of Korea”, including its natural environment, traditions and pop culture.
“Last year the number of foreign visitors to Korea exceeded 12 million, which in turn served the opportunity for Korea to make a new leap forward to become an advanced tourism country, in name and reality,” said KTO president, Choo Suk Byun.
“Foreigners visit Korea not just because of physical accessibility and reasonable prices but because of their desire to experience the latest trends, cuisine, culture and lifestyle of Korea. In short, the nature of tourism in Korea has changed.”
The KTO has also unveiled a new tourism logo, with which it wants to emphasise the ‘K’ in Korea. This will set the foundations for the promotion of a range of areas, including ‘K-Food’, ‘K-Culture’, ‘K-Pop’ and ‘K-Style’.
“The ‘K’ which is often used to represent and symbolise Korea, portrays the welcoming open arms of Korea to visitors,” the KTO said in a statement. “The multi-coloured stripes on the ‘K’ use one of Korea’s most representative colour combinations, symbolising the variety of experiences Korea has to offer.”
The tourism board has also unveiled a new ‘Tour Imagination’ campaign, inviting international travellers to record videos of their trips to Korea and share them online. Winning entries will be offered trips to Korea.
“With the launching of the new brand we can reinforce the global awareness that Korea is a creative country filled with the latest trends and sophisticated culture, thereby contributing to the opening of an era that welcomes 20 million foreign tourists in the future,” Choo added.
In the first six months of 2014, South Korea welcomed 6.6m international visitors, 9.3% more than the same period last year. China is now the country’s largest source market, followed by Japan, the US, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
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