Korea to designate Indian TV actress Anushka Sen as Hony Ambassador to promote Korea Tourism

NEW DELHI: The emerging Indian sensation in Korea and well-known Television actress Anushka Sen, of fame of noted TV serials ‘Baal Veer’ and ‘Jhansi Ki Rani’, is all set to be designated as Honorary Ambassador for Korean tourism.  A formal announcement to this effect is likely to be made during the 3-day ‘Korea Festival 2023’ being organized in Delhi from August 25-27. This grand occasion is likely to mark some more major announcements by the Korean government-run Korea Trade Organization (KTO), which is likely to sign MOU with IRCTC to strengthen tourism and cultural bonds between the two nations.

The announcement of the designation of Anushka Sen as Honorary Ambassador to promote Korean tourism is likely to be made in the presence of LEE Young-geun, Executive Director of the International Marketing Department, Korea Tourism Organization. He is specially flying to India from Korea. Myongkil Yun, Regional Director – India & SAARC, Korea Tourism Organization and senior IRCTC officials will also be present on this occasion.

Anushka Sen’s Korean connection was revealed last year when she made her visit to Korea to sign up for her first Korean movie ‘Asia’. With this, she made a foray into South Korean cinema. She also has shot a travel series for Korea and will be working on a Korean web series as well.

The other major attractions of the event ‘Korea Festival 2023’ are likely to be the Korean Temple Food demonstration by Buddhist Monk Chef Wookwan, and a Wine & dine session to celebrate this historic collaboration.

The series of initiatives being taken by KTO is triggered by the fact that the tally of Indian tourists visiting Korea continues to go down even though the number of foreign tourists visiting South Korea from across the world continues to witness an upward trend. In 2016, the number of Indian tourists to Korea was at its peak at 195,000, and the number did not increase after that. In deep contrast, the total number of foreign tourists visiting Korea in the same year was a whopping 17 million.  It amply shows that the people in India do not regard Korea as a major tourist destination.

Worried over the abysmally low Indian tourist count, Korea seems to have planned to launch many Korean tourism promotion initiatives like engaging Indian celebrities, organizing roadshows, etc. to increase the flow of Indian tourists to Korea.

KTO is also pushing its government to increase the number of flights and make travel between the two countries affordable.

According to KTO, the number of foreign visitors to South Korea has increased rapidly in recent years, rising from 13 million in 2017 to 15 million in 2018 and more than 17 million in 2019. Experts believe that the increase is largely attributed to the Hallyu (Korean Wave) craze. In particular, the number of tourists from Asian countries is on the rise, including Chinese group tours as well as those coming from Indonesia and Thailand.

With this worrying trend in mind, the KTO has some plans for this most populous country in the world.

LEE Young-geun, Executive Director, International Marketing Department, KTO told the Asian Community News Network (ACN Network) during its recent visit to Seoul that there were many business travellers from India, but regular tourists were not that good in numbers.

“So our New Delhi office and head office of KTO will be working together to promote Korea in India. But I don’t know why Indian tourists prefer Europe and other countries and do not visit Korea. They visit countries in Europe more than Korea and Japan. Korea as a tourism market for India is very weak.”

The travel situation from Korea to India also is not very encouraging as the number of Korean travellers to India was registered abysmally low at 150,000 only in 2018. Most of them travelled to New Delhi and that’s also for business purposes, and not for tourism.

While reasoning the low number LEE Young-geun, Executive Director, International Marketing Department, KTO said that it was also because of the low number of flights as compared to other countries between Seoul and Delhi, and tickets also were very expensive.

“We have asked the airline companies to increase the number of seats by adding more flights between the two countries. But it seems like a side effect of the Covid-19 pandemic that the number of flight seats has remained limited.”

As of now, the airline companies operating flights between the two countries majorly include Koreas Airlines, Asiana Airlines, and Air India.

KTO New Delhi’s Brand promotion and PR activities in India include Product Training, Product Development & Co-Marketing with outbound tour operators, Familiarization Trips for the travel industry and media personnel, Participation in major B2B and B2C exhibitions and events, Association with the travel industry and related organizations, Information dissemination through roadshows, seminars and workshops, Incentive support for MICE, Industrial and Educational tourism, and Encouraging film tourism to South Korea.