Credit: aprilstarr @ emprezz.com
Repost with full credit and link back to the site, Please.
Repost with full credit and link back to the site, Please.
The current tourism promotion “What is waiting for you in Seoul?” video of the Seoul Tourism Board has Kim Hyun Joong in it during its last few seconds. It featured him in a shooting set which Emily, the child in a family of tourists visited. Us the viewer then sees the actor entertain Emily and hears his voice talk in English, “I’m happy to meet you Emily”. Then the last shot has the family of tourists and the actor ends their interaction happily and pleasantly. Kim Hyun Joong promotes urban tourism. The video seems to have answered its own question: Hyun Joong will be waiting for you in Seoul.
Why Kim Hyun Joong ? Who is he?
Kim is a South Korean singer-actor who is now reaping the success of his past dramas and his solo music album launched a few months ago in Asia. He is also said to have fans in other parts of the world. He is part of the second generation of the Hallyu Wave that brought South Korean actors, singers, performers to other countries’ collective attention via their dramas, concerts, albums, fan meetings, commercials and other activities.
Celebrities like Kim, according to Petra Glover who made the study of the relationship between celebrity and tourism, are sought after to promote destinations. These celebrities are those with wide and broad demographic reach. They have high visibility value – faces that are easily recognized, remembered and have high name recall. Moreover, they are supposed to have lifestyles that are of high values. Meaning no scandals or bad reputation. Kim satisfies all the requirements above to have been chosen as tourism endorser.
While it is true putting celebrities in tourism campaign can cost more money, but they could be cost effective in the long run. Celebrities are continuously visible due to social and mass media .The public are reinforced in the association between, let us say, Kim and Seoul that promotional video has lengthened its life span and effectiveness. Kim, by the way, endorses also a duty free shop. As a result travel and shopping has been tied together. It is what destinations hoped tourists would do: visit and buy.
Kim’s presence in the promotion also further emphasized what South Korea has tried to capitalize on starting a few years back the so-called “entertainment tourism”. Japanese package tours to South Korea included visits to location shooting sites of the famous drama Jewel in the Palace or Dae Jang Geum, visits to actual shooting then of Boys Over Flowers, attendance at concerts, soccer games, fan meets and more. It is said South Korea experienced an increase of visits from Japanese tourists for this reason.
Kim Hyun Joong finished doing his Asian tour with a promise of concerts in the succeeding years, other Asian countries could also benefit from the tourism he could likewise pull in . Fans from other countries follow Kim in his activities abroad. His being on the news brings additional attention to the places he visits. It would be ideal if he include in his schedule the time to also go to the tourist attractions of those places.
By all counts Kim is the ideal endorser for tourism as he is also the official spokesperson for international beauty products and clothes. In other words, he is intentionally conspicuous. Now done with his Asian promotion tour, he is constantly on YouTube, his schedule, projects and activities closely monitored by loyal supporters and sent immediately via the Internet. His value, on the other hand, rises higher being associated with South Korea which boasts of being a global city where technology is mixed and matched with traditional material and nonmaterial culture.
Kim Hyun Joong is a homegrown talent, a culture bearer with a personality viewed as vibrant, dynamic and is also well known to be a hard workingman. He mirrors what is contemporary Seoul today: a player in global activities, ambitious, high cultural values, lifestyle that is cosmopolitan, a city that doesn’t sleep.
So the tourism subliminal message is – Go to Seoul, Hyun Joong is there . What are you waiting for?
( thanks to Lina Perez for creating the fanarts for this article , photo credits as tagged )
