Reading time: 2 minutes – Spotted on CNN
South Korea attracts. So much so that the renewed interest in its cultural exports has prompted many foreign fans to travel to the “land of the fresh morning”, some embarking on veritable pilgrimages to visit the filming locations of K-pop music videos ( Korean pop) or Korean dramas (TV series).
Seoul intends to use the popularity of this “K-culture” to attract a greater number of tourists. To do this, the Korean Ministry of Finance announced the launch of the “K-Culture Training Visa”. CNN explains that it will be open to foreigners wishing to practice K-pop dancing, choreography and modeling.
In fact, Korean pop is already the most cited reason for visiting the country, according to the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism – with particularly strong interest from fans in Southeast Asia, from Europe and the United States. Despite the fact that nationalities entering the country are diversifying, tourism is slow to return to pre-pandemic levels, laments the Ministry of Finance.
Celebrities in travel ads
Last year, around 11 million people visited the country, a slight increase from the previous year. But these figures remain significantly lower than those of 2019, when more than 17.5 million visitors went to South Korea, according to government data.
Tourism revenue also continued to decline, generating $15.1 billion (around 13.9 billion euros) in 2023, 25% less than the $20 billion (18.6 billion euros) observed in 2019. According to the ministry, the slowness of this recovery is due to a reorientation of spending towards cultural experiences to the detriment of purchases.
With this new visa, the South Korean government hopes to mark the occasion. Candidates do not necessarily have to be auditioned or have an offer from a talent agency, CNN specifies. Further information is expected to be communicated later this year.
Furthermore, Korean celebrities have already been widely represented in travel advertisements. Lee Jung-jae, actor of the famous drama Squid Game, an Emmy winner, became South Korea’s honorary tourism ambassador. In 2019, flagship airline Korean Air even collaborated with boy band SuperM for an in-flight safety video.
The Korean peninsula also made it easier for digital nomads (people combining travel and remote work) to stay and work by implementing its “workation” visa at the start of the year. The government plans to extend the system so that these remote workers can visit the country while carrying out their teleworking hours on site.
The latest announcements are a crucial step in opening South Korea to international workers: these visas could ultimately increase the workforce and ease the demographic crisis. And the country really needs it: according to figures from 2023, its fertility rate is the lowest in the world.
