Lee Boo-jin: "K-Tourism 'Storytelling' to Make Our Economy a 'First Mover'"

Aspirations as Chair of the Korea Visit Year Committee
"Uniting the Strengths of K-Culture Sales and Tourism Industries"

"We will strive to make K-tourism the 'first mover' of our economy."

Lee Boo-jin, Chairperson of the Korea Visit Year Committee, is speaking at the '2023 Korea Visit Year K-Tourism Public-Private Strategy Meeting for the Success of K-Tourism' held on the 2nd at the Korea Tourism Organization Seoul Center in Jung-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism]

This is the aspiration of Lee Boo-jin, the newly appointed chairperson of the Korea Visit Year Committee and CEO of Hotel Shilla. On the 2nd, at a public-private strategic meeting held at the Korea Tourism Organization Seoul Center in Dae-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, Chairperson Lee pledged, "We will bundle K-culture?including cultural arts, K-pop, games, performances, and sports?into compelling storytelling to sell worldwide, and unite the capabilities of the tourism industry such as aviation, shopping, food, and accommodation."

She also presented a blueprint, stating, "We will address the inconveniences faced by foreign tourists and difficulties in the tourism field, and through the expertise and networks accumulated in the tourism industry, we will contribute, albeit modestly, to the success of the '2023~2024 Korea Visit Year' and to creating an attractive K-tourism that the world will pay attention to."

Earlier, the Korea Visit Year Committee elected Lee as the new chairperson at the board meeting held on the 24th of last month. The board explained the background of the election, saying, "Chairperson Lee has demonstrated outstanding management skills as the CEO of Hotel Shilla, which focuses on businesses closely related to the tourism industry. Based on her expertise in the domestic and international tourism industries, we judged her to be the right person to lay the foundation for public-private cooperation to open the era of 30 million foreign tourists by 2027 through creative leadership."

The public-private strategic meeting on this day was held to explore ways to revitalize the K-tourism industry during the 2023~2024 Korea Visit Year. To engrave Korean travel on the 'bucket list of the world,' the meeting discussed the three major strategies of K-tourism by genre and theme: the fusion of K-culture, which excites the global community, with tourism; the development of interesting and unique content; and the expansion of convenient and comfortable tourism infrastructure.

Park Bo-gyun, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, emphasized, "The K-tourism industry is the field that compresses the competitiveness, charm, and scalability of the K-content industry spreading worldwide. We will intricately embed the irreplaceable weapon of K-culture into the tourism industry and make 2023 the inaugural year toward becoming a tourism powerhouse."

Yoon Young-ho, President of the Korea Tourism Association Central Council, proposed during the meeting to review the tourism reception system in preparation for the increase in foreign tourists and to continue easing regulations. Park In-sook, President of the Korea Tourist Interpreter Guide Association, said, "We need to strengthen the foundational resilience that will not be shaken by international relations and thoroughly prepare reception systems such as hotels, transportation, and food. It is necessary to expand convenience facilities to resolve inconveniences from the perspective of independent travelers."

Additionally, Song Mi-sun, CEO of Hana Tour, suggested cooperation in developing representative tourism products of local governments based on storytelling, active government support for developing Hallyu tourism products utilizing K-culture, and linked nurturing of tourism manpower through enterprises, schools, and government.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.