Wednesday, March 6, 2024
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism announced that the Korea Grand Sale 2024, an annual shopping and tourism festival, had drawn an unprecedented 120,000 overseas visitors to South Korea. The festival, which lasted 50 days from January 11 to February 26, joined forces with over 1,650 brands across various sectors including travel, hospitality, shopping, and food and beverage. These collaborations aimed to provide promotional events and engaging booths related to K-content.
Marking the commencement of the 2024 Visit Korea campaign, this festival stands as the Culture Ministry’s most ambitious tourism initiative to date. The campaign seeks to capitalize on the global appeal of K-culture to attract tourists through a variety of events, travel packages, and promotional efforts, with a budget of 17.8 billion won ($13.3 billion) dedicated to its execution in 2024.
According to the ministry, the 2024 Korea Grand Sale was instrumental in selling approximately 87,500 airline tickets to Korea, thanks to partnerships with nine local airlines. Additionally, it facilitated the sale of over 10,000 travel packages via collaborations with online travel platforms. Remarkable increases in sales were observed during the festival, with duty-free shops and department stores experiencing a 269 percent and 122 percent rise in sales, respectively. A promotional collaboration with China’s UnionPay card company resulted in discounts for over 5,000 tourists.
The ministry also noted a significant surge in foreign tourist visits to welcome centers located in Seoul’s key tourism areas, with numbers doubling compared to the previous year. Around 21,770 tourists visited these centers, where they received coupon books for offline shopping and information about the Korea Grand Sale.
Throughout the festival, 74 activities related to K-content, including K-pop dance lessons and makeup sessions, were offered, engaging around 900 tourists from 52 countries. Feedback from those who participated was overwhelmingly positive, with 90.8 percent expressing satisfaction and 89.2 percent indicating their willingness to revisit Korea during future festival periods, as revealed by a ministry survey.
Park Jong-taek, the director-general of the Culture Ministry’s Tourism Policy Bureau, declared the event a resounding success. He expressed confidence that this achievement would serve as a catalyst for the Visit Korea campaign and the continued expansion of Korea’s tourism industry.
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Sunday, April 28, 2024
