ID :
304545
Mon, 10/28/2013 - 07:07
Auther :

Luring In The Tourists With South Korea's Hallyu Culture

By Fadzli Ramli MELAKA (Malaysia), Oct 28 (Bernama) -- Not long ago, only a handful of Malaysians knew Nami Island, a tiny half-moon shaped island located in Chuncheon, South Korea. However, last year the island received more than 44,000 Malaysian tourists. What is so great about this place that is luring Malaysian tourists in droves? According to Korea Tourism Organisation President Charm Lee, Malaysians have been enchanted with the place that they came to know from the Korean television drama series, Winter Sonata. The epic love story aired in Malaysian back in 2002 swept the feet and emotionally engaged the audience, but most importantly it also showcased the beautiful side of Nami Island. Lee said Winter Sonata and Nami Island were the perfect examples of how South Korea has capatilised on the two in drawing tourists to the country. "Winter Sonata is loved not only by Malaysians, but also by people from all over the world, so there is some kind of a pull for these fans to come at the exact spot of their favourite drama, the road with beautiful trees to its left and right that captivates the visitors," he said. THE HALLYU CULTURE'S MAGIC Lee told this to Bernama at the sidelines of the recent World Tourism Conference here, themed 'Global Tourism : Game Changers and Pace Setters' attended by 678 delegates from 46 countries including United Kingdom, Portugal, China, Australia, Argentina and South Africa. Before going any further, one fascinating fact about Lee is that he is actually an European, born in Germany as Bernhard Quandt but because he was so mesmerised with South Korea, he became a citizen back in 1986. He had even appeared in a Korean drama, Stairway To Heaven, where he played the role of Director Jang. According to Lee, Korean drama is just one of the key components of the Hallyu culture, a culture consisting of Korean music or k-pop, fashion, food, lifestyle, language and anything that has to do with the "Korean wave". Tapping into Hallyu culture to promote tourism is a brilliant idea because it is the nature of people to experience themselves what they love most, for example the k-pop. Nonetheless, people are not just satisfied by listening to the music or watching videos, they want to be at the concert and get the true feel of the Korean culture. "This is where tourism players come in, basically we cater to these needs whether going to your favourite spot in Winter Sonata or going to the Girl's Generation, Super Junior or Big Bang concert," he said. LOOKING INTO THE TARGET CUSTOMERS However, to do this perfectly, Lee said the marketing strategy has to target at the right people and workout creative ways to attract these people. "Around 47 percent of the Hallyu fans are in their 20s, with around 80 to 90 percent of them being females, so what does this indicate? So your marketing initiatives have to fulfill what these people want, maybe fun, hip, cute and bright coloured advertising. "We also know around 54 percent of the Hallyu content are k-pop and 33 percent are television series, so these two spearhead our campaign, besides promoting restaurant and shopping destinations," he said. Asked why Hallyu has become a cultural phenomenon around the world, Lee said it is because of two factors, firstly the Koreans produce entertainment like music or drama to perfection and secondly they love doing something out of the ordinary. He pointed at the country's international superstar PSY for example, not many people in the world have the idea to create a dance and music mimicking a galloping horse, and therefore it is not surprising that the Gangnam Style music video was done perfectly and watched by 1.79 billion people in YouTube. MALAYSIA COULD EMULATE KOREA "PSY has not escaped our tourism campaign, we used him to introduce what Korea has to offer in PSY's Wiki Korea campaign where he told the Korean story in a funny and compelling way...these is one of our strategy, when people remember an icon like PSY they will remember the country," he said. Lee also pointed out Malaysia and Melaka too could do the same thing, all that has to be done is to take a powerful selling point and make it a 'buzz' all over the world. He said for example, Peninsular Malaysia's southern state of Melaka, a state rich with cultural and historical heritage, could be the shooting location for a compelling epic love story maybe at Jonker Street where the love stretches from the olden days until today. "You don't need billion dollars advertising if you do this right, added with the right connection and carefully placed advertisements...it is about catching the imagination and fulfilling dreams, like Korea's tourism moto 'Korea Be Inspired'," he said. -- BERNAMA

X