Making Headway at N.Y. Festival

KTO's videos on Korean tourism, food wins big at the annual festival for tourism ads in New York

Korea Tourism Organization(KTO) raised high Korea's image as a foremost tourism destination in the world with its tourism video for Korean tourism entitled, "Korea, Sparkling,"winning the top award at New York Festival of Film and Video Awards, the Grand Award among the Gold World Medals presented to best films and videos on tourism announced Jan. 31 during the festival, the tourism agency said.
The video on Korean tourism which won both the Grand Prize and the Gold Award showed off what make Korea's tourism attractive such as food, traditional tourist sites, and traditional entertainment, which were presented in both traditional and modern images in CG animation in 12 languages.
Composer Yang Bang-eon provided the background music to help to show to the world Korea's unique dynamic energy in an effective manner. A video introducing Korean food with the title of "Wonderful World of Korean Food"won the Silver Award at the festival,
which introduced diversified Korean food in a beautiful screen image mixed with traditional Korean image designed to attract foreign tourists.
The annual New York event, which celebrated its 50th year, is the third largest advertisement festival along with Clio Awards and Cannes International Advertising Festival, the KTO said.
About 15,000 ad products from 60 countries entered the New York festival this year. In the film and video awards section, some 1,000 products from 30 countries were presented. KTO won the grand award for the first time this year.
KTO officials said the award is sure to expand Korea's tourism as more people would learn about Korea's tourism brand with its tourism image improved substantially.
KTO will produce more of such films and videos on Korean tourism to make Korean tourism known further worldwide. nw

(left photo) A KTO executive and staff hold the Gold Award presented to KTO's video on Korean tourism at New York Festival of Film and Video Awards announced on Jan. 31. The prize-winning video shows Korea's scenic tourist attractions, including the ones (shown above).