About the Visit Korea Committee
The Visit Korea Committee is non-profit organization that operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, and is the only organization in the tourism sector that conducts public interest initiatives through collaborations between private and public entities. The ‘2010-2012 Visit Korea Year’ campaign was a success, having reached its goal of attracting 10 million foreign tourists. This was followed by the ‘2016-2018 Visit Korea Year’, which established a solid foundation for enhancing the quality of the Korean tourism industry.Currently, the Visit Korea Committee is actively promoting the ‘2023-2024 Visit Korea Year’ campaign with a vision to revive the Korean tourism industry. The committee effectively contributes to Korean tourism development through the execution of campaign projects in collaboration with private and public entities.Furthermore, the Visit Korea Committee is initiating a variety of programs specifically targeting individual foreign tourists. These include the ‘Korea Grand Sale’, a festival celebrating tourism for foreigners, the ‘Korea Tour Card’, an exclusive travel card designed for foreign tourists, and the ‘Smart Tourism Information System’, a multilingual assistance service. These initiatives are being implemented in conjunction with the 2023-2024 Visit Korea Year campaign.
Characteristics of Visit Korea Committee
- Contribute to the advancement of the Korean tourism industry with public-interest oriented project based on private-public collaboration
- A maximizer of project synergy by establishing a tourism cooperation network engaging diverse private players
- A link between private-private and private-public (local government) inducing close cooperation and success of consolidated projects
- An enhancer of Korea tourism scale by attracting the private sector based on government funds as facilitator
- Utilize the partners’ (private companies) business cooperation network, expand overseas promotion and focus on foreign individual tourists (FIT) in Korea
History
September 2008
Established as nonprofit organization under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
2010–2012
Contributed to attracting 10 million foreign tourists with successful launch of 2010–2012 Visit Korea Year
July 2013–2015
Reorganized into Visit Korea Committee, and launched various programs involving cooperation between public and private entitites
January 2016–2018
Launched 2016–2018 Visit Korea Year campaign, and contributed to qualitative growth of tourism industry
2023~
Renamed to “Visit Korea Committee” and currently promoting the “2023~2024 Visit Korea Year” project
Past Campaigns
2016–2018 Visit Korea Year
Vision
The world keeps coming back to Korea
Introduction
Launched to build on the success of the 2010-2012 Visit Korea Year campaign, which contributed to attracting 10 million foreign tourists, and to lay a foundation for the tourism industry’s qualitative development commensurate with quantitative growth.
Ambassadors
Lee Min-ho, Seolhyun, Pororo
Key Outcomes
Laid foundation for qualitative growth of Korea tourism with improved welcome services for foreign tourists.
Raised awareness among general public through welcome campaign and promotional activities via on- and offline media.
Secured growth engine for tourism industry through expansion of local government network.
Promoted provincial tourism to foreign tourists by utilizing provincial tourism resources.
Expanded public-private cooperation network by encouraging voluntary participation from private entities.
2010–2012 Visit Korea Year
Vision
To raise the standards of Korea’s tourism sector and to raise awareness of the national tourism brand
Introduction
Launched to raise the standards of Korea’s tourism sector and to raise awareness of the national tourism brand through efforts to attract foreign tourists, promote regional tourism, and improve the tourism infrastructure with the goal of attracting 10 million foreign tourists and enhancing the competitiveness of Koreans tourism.
Ambassadors
Bae Yong-joon, Kim Yuna, Girls’ Generation, Pororo
Key Outcomes
Established cooperative system and network among tourism-related organizations.
Maximized synergy of tourism programs through greater involvement of private sector.
Promoted provincial tourism and stimulated provincial economies through joint programs with related organizations.
Spread the Korean wave across the globe.
Instilled a more sophisticated attitude in citizens and tourism industry workers, and improved conditions of major sites (shopping, food, transportation).
Attracted participation from the tourism-related private sector, and laid the foundation for qualitative growth of Korean tourism.
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