Five Korea tourism promotional clips reached 225 million views just one month after release.

Released on October 24 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), the clips were viewed an estimated 225.3 million times as of November 30.

Among the five clips, ‘What if [Vincent Van Gogh] visited Korea,’ which is the very first Korea tourism promotional clip produced using generative AI, recorded the highest number of views at 59.88 million. The video was praised for its creativity in introducing Korea’s representative tourist destinations through the style of 11 world-class painters including Van Gogh, Munch and Monet.

It took six months to make the clip, using new digital technologies, including training the generative AI more than 80,000 times for each work to make them appear more naturally in each painter’s style.

Three local tourism promotional clips are inspired by global K-contents: ‘Live Squid Game’, which features a squid catching game set on Ulleungdo Island; ‘Queendom: Korean Archery’, a chase game held at Suwon Hwaseong Fortress; and ‘Guardian’s Fireworks’, which presents the beautiful and romantic scene of Haman Nakhwanori.

The clips were created to allow visitors to experience the unique and attractive tourism elements of each region.

The last clip, ‘Korea Never Forgets’, is based on the true story of the Buffalo, NY couple who cared for Korean tourists stranded in a snow storm last winter. It captures the Campagnas’ trip to Korea in a documentary format, and even delivers the touching message that ‘Korea never forgets gratitude.’

The five Korea tourism promotional clips can be viewed through KTO’s official YouTube channel.

The success of the clips has significantly driven up the number of KTO YouTube subscribers, by more than 150,000 from the previous year to 820,000 subscribers. According to the KTO, that’s the highest number of subscribers among all national tourism organization YouTube channels.

In other KTO news, here in Toronto the organization recently hosted Green Korea, an evening of mindfulness, meditation and Korean vegan cuisine at the Royal Ontario Museum. The night of culture and fun aimed to help educate and inform travel industry partners and key vegan stakeholders about the importance and rise of green topics in Korea including sustainability, ecotourism and veganism.

Source: Travelweek