Festival aims to boost Asean tourism

This year’s Asean Culture and Tourism Fair will kick off tomorrow in Busan, introducing various cultural experiences for visitors to learn more about the 10 Southeast Asian countries that make up the regional organization.

The 10 member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The festival will take place in Busan over the weekend and will wrap up in Incheon next Tuesday, lasting three days in total.

In a Wednesday press release, the host, the Asean-Korea Centre, wrote that the festival aims to “promote culture and tourism exchanges and raise mutual understanding among Korea and Asean.”

It also mentioned that Busan was chosen as the host city because of the upcoming Asean-ROK Commemorative Summit scheduled there for December.

Incheon was selected because of its rising significance after hosting the current 2014 Asian Games, according to the press release.

Professional dancers from each Asean nation will stage traditional performances - including folk dancing, masked dancing, puppet shows and music shows - at Busan Citizens Park over the weekend.

The Busan National Gukak Center will also feature traditional Korean music, known as gukak.

Each performance will be presented from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. tomorrow, and from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.

The Asean National Tourism Organization Booth, the Asean-Korea Centre Promotion Booth and the Asean-ROK Commemorative Summit Booth all plan to station themselves at Busan Citizens Park to provide visitors with various tourism information and cultural experiences, according to the Asean-Korea Centre.

The booths will be open from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The Asean Cafe will provide traditional beverages from various nations and the Colors of Asean zone will exhibit photos from Asean’s attractive tourist spots. Both attractions will be open from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. over the weekend at Busan Citizens Park.

Next Tuesday in Incheon, the traditional dancers who performed in Busan over the weekend will take to the stage once more at the Incheon Asiad Main Stadium from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [selee@joongang.co.kr]