South Korea attracts tourists to the country with its television series and singers

The so-called ‘Korean Wave (Hallyu)’ culture, which has also influenced Turkey, contributes to South Korea’s tourism potential, while content such as ‘K-pop’ and ‘K-drama’ are used to attract tourists to the country. country.

Maide Serin Çığ, Marketing Manager of Korea Tourism Organization, gave an assessment on the “Korean Wave”, also known as “Hallyu”.

Stating that the ‘Korean Wave’ began with the popularity of South Korean television series, films and music, Çığ said that this wave increased its impact with the popularization of Korean boy and girl groups.

THE MUSIC AND FILM INDUSTRY LEFT ITS MARK

Çığ noted that this wave is rapidly expanding to include the e-sports industry, traditional Korean culture, food, literature and Korean language learning, as well as the music, TV series and film sectors. , and said: “The Korean film ‘Parasite’, shot in 2020, won the best film award and “announced Korean cinema to the world by winning Oscars in 6 categories, including best director.”

Çığ said: “There are currently approximately 178 million Hallyu fans in 118 countries, and the number of fan clubs passionate about this culture is increasing day by day. “The most important reason for Hallyu’s popularity today is its unique combination of Western culture with Korean culture in the creation of content such as Korean music and TV series,” he said.

Explaining that they took advantage of the global popularity of content such as K-pop and K-drama to diversify the country’s tourism content, and actively promoted projects to promote Korean tourism and attract foreign tourists, Çığ said:

“We carefully select large-scale K-pop concerts held in Korea, discover tours and travel products that include them, and attract tourists from all over the world to Korea. “We also provide support to travel agencies in selecting tourism destinations as filming locations for Korean dramas with the theme of the ‘Korean Wave’ and using them to develop and promote Korean tourism products.”

THE “GANGNAM STYLE” IS STILL NUMBER ONE

Çığ recalled that the Korean music that received the most interaction in the world is PSY’s song ‘Gangnam Style’, whose dance everyone knows by heart, and stated that the song still maintains its first place with almost 5 billion views on YouTube .

Stating that Blackpink’s songs ‘Ddu-Du Ddu-Du’ and ‘Kill This Love’ came immediately after, Çığ said: “For the TV series industry, if we give an example of the current TV series, Squid Game, which is number one It stands out worldwide on the Netflix platform. If we take an example from the film industry, the Oscar-winning film, Parasite, of course, will occupy the first place. Apart from this, ‘Miracle in the Cell No.’, which was adapted as Miracle in District 7 in our country. “We can show the movie ‘7’,” he said. (BRITISH AUTOMOBILE CLUB)