Promoting the Visit Korea Year Campaign in Vietnam,
a Major Center of Hallyu in Southeast Asia

The Visit Korea Committee (VKC) promoted the Visit Korea Year 2010-2012 between April 1st and April 2nd during the opening of Korea Tourism Organization’s branch office in Vietnam. In the last five years, the number of the Vietnamese visiting Korea has doubled, and, due to active opening policies of the Vietnamese government, economic growth has increased by over 7.8% as well. Vietnam is a leading Hallyu (Korean Wave) market in Southeast Asia for Korean movies, dramas, and K-Pop. During the opening of the branch office in Vietnam, the VKC ran a promotional booth at the event entrance and distributed promotional materials and souvenirs to visitors.

During the press and the Korean Night banquet held on April 1st, the VKC introduced a promotional video on the Visit Korea Year campaign for over 240 Vietnamese government officials, media professionals, and travel agencies as well as promoted special events including the Free Shuttle Bus program, One More Night promotion, and online coupons. Pororo, a character publicity ambassador for the Visit Korea Year campaign, made a surprise appearance during the banquet, provoking wild applause from those present.

In her banquet address, Katie Han, VKC’s Executive Director of Marketing, emphasized, “Over 600,000 tourists visited last year and that’s a 30% increase compared to the previous year. Vietnam has become not just a great market for Korea, but a vital partner to explore the future tourism market.” She promised more active tourism marketing in Vietnam while adding that “strong cultural exchanges and partnership between the two countries will help increase the number of tourists and, eventually, make both countries great tourism destinations in Asia.”