by The Los Angeles branch of the Korea Tourism Organization and King Sejong Institute, the American base of the King Sejong Institute Foundation, joined hands to revitalize Korean tourism for foreigners interested in the Korean language and culture.
King Sejong Institute, which is in charge of disseminating the Korean language in the United States as a representative brand of Korean language abroad, conducts online and offline Korean classes for two weeks from July 19th through the ‘Online Sejong Cultural Academy’ program. A total of 1,400 students took the course.
Students who participated in this program were given the qualifications to participate in the ‘non-face-to-face K-pop star fan meeting’ hosted by the Los Angeles branch of the Korea Tourism Organization as an end-of-course event. A total of 175 people participated, showing a high response. Participants showed interest in traveling to Korea by sharing their travel experiences through a chat window, saying, “I want to go to Korea when the corona is over.”
King Sejong Institute, an overseas Korean language and culture dissemination organization under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Sports of Korea operates in 234 locations in 82 countries.
Jeong Byung-ok, head of the Korea Tourism Organization LA branch, said, “We planned this collaboration project in the hope that King Sejong Institute students who learn Korean language and culture with interest in Korea will become prospective visitors to Korea. . More students than expected participated and felt the enthusiasm for Hallyu, and we plan to increase cooperation with King Sejong Institute to revitalize tourism in the future.”
In addition, Jung Eun-mi, director of King Sejong Institute in the United States, said, “In December of last year, the King Sejong Institute Foundation and the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) signed a business agreement to promote Korean tourism and spread the Korean language. We hope that the Korea Tourism Organization and King Sejong Institute will jointly use the network to contribute to the revitalization of the Korean Wave in the United States.”
