Korea Unveils Its Tourism
Brand, 'Korea Sparkling'

Steps up overseas publicity activities to promote Korea as a tourism destination

The domestic tourism industry posted the worst tourism bottom line last year as it saw travel deficit widening a record high of $8.5 billion during the year. Inbound tourists were tallied at 615,000 during 2006, while those who went abroad for study or made trips of foreign countries surged to 11.6 million, nearly twice as many as inbound travelers.
In an effort to narrow the chronic deficit in travel balance and promote Korea's tourism image abroad, Korea has adopted its tourism brand, "Korea, Sparkling."
About 150 dignitaries and tourism industry people gathered in front of Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) building on April 10 to unveil Korea's latest brand. Among the participants were Vice Culture and Tourism Minister Park Yang-woo, KTO President Kim Jong-min and Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun.
Korea's existing brand "Dynamic Korea"indicates the dynamic force behind the nation's economic and social strides,
but the newest one is a lower tourism brand symbolizing "emotional dynamism,"with which Koreans and Korean culture can show off visitors to Korea.
"Korea, Sparkling"indicates visitors to Korea can have an inspiring journey with the vital energy of Koreans and Koran culture. The symbol of two overlapping windows means traditional and modern elements coexist in harmony, while the white empty square in the middle represents a window that visitors can fill from their own experiences.
"The brand, developed with help of world-renowned brand expert Simon Anholt, is likely to give a clear image of Korea as a tourism destination,"KTO President Kim said.
Minister of Culture and Tourism Kim Myung-gon said in an interview, "We have to find a solution to the problem that foreigners still do not know Korea." Korea ranked 27th in the national brand ranking among the 35 surveyed nations said the minister, adding that the value of Korea's national brand accounted 26 percent of growth domestic product, and only three countries out of the surveyed nations - Korea, Egypt and Poland - stayed below the 30 percent range.
"To break the stalemate, the government is coming up with the new tourism brand, Korea, Sparkling,"Minister Kim said.
Korea has benchmarked the fact that tourism powerhouses like Australia, New Zealand and UK have a tourism brand under a strategy of publicizing their respective tourism industry - Japan's "Yokoso! Japan,"Hong Kong's "Live It, Love It,"and Taiwan's "Touch your heart."Malaysia developed its own tourism brand, "Truly Asia"and spent 100 billion won in placing advertisements per annum. It paid off: the Southeast Asian country saw the number of inbound tourists soaring from 5 million before the introduction of the brand to 20 million .
In this light, the Korean government plans to conduct massive publicity activities to raise competitiveness of the Korean tourism industry. It has set aside this year's budget for promoting the Korean tourism industry overseas 20 billion won more than last year. Korea plans to hold publicity activities designed to promote its tourism brand in such cities as Tokyo, Chingdao, London and New York between May and June. nw

(right photo) KTO President Kim Jong-min delivers a speech during a ceremony for introducing Korea's tourism brand, "Korea Sparkling"(seen in left photo) on April 1.