Five government-made tourism videos pass 225 million views

Food & Travel

Published: 01 Dec. 2023, 14:55

Five government-made tourism videos pass 225 million views

A scene from the video clip “Korea Never Forgets,” featuring American couple Alexander and Andrea Campagna [KOREA TOURISM ORGANIZATION]

Five government video clips showcasing the charms of Korea surpassed have 225 million views in their first month of release, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) said Friday.

The clips, jointly produced by the KTO and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, are part of the Visit Korea Year campaign that the ministry set in motion last December with the goal of attracting 30 million tourists by 2027.

An AI-generated video clip titled “What if [Vincent Van Gogh] visited Korea” recorded the highest number of views with 59.88 million. It dropped on Oct. 24 as one of the first one of the promotional series to be released. It introduces Korea's iconic tourist destinations through the artistic styles of 11 historical painters including Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet.

The clip took six months to produce, according to the KTO. “We had to train the generative AI more than 80,000 times for each work to make them appear more naturally in each painter’s style,” said the organization in its news release.

A scene from the AI-generated video clip titled "What if [Vincent Van Gogh] visited Korea" [KOREA TOURISM ORGANIZATION]

Three other clips were also inspired by global Korean content.

“Live Squid Game” featured a squid-catching game set on Ulleung Island; “Queendom: Korean Archery” showcased a chase game held at the Suwon Hwaseong fortress; and “Guardian's Fireworks” presented the beautiful and romantic scene of Haman Nakhwanori.

The final clip of the series, “Korea Never Forgets,” was based on the true story of the American couple Alexander and Andrea Campagna who cared for Korean tourists who were stranded in a snowstorm in the United States last winter. It captures the Campagna couple's trip to Korea in a documentary format and delivers the message that “Korea never forgets gratitude.”

KTO's official YouTube channel, where the five videos were released, has since seen a boom in subscribers. It has an additional 150,000 subscribers than it did last year, with a total of 820,000 as of Dec. 1. That is the largest following of any national tourism organization YouTube channel, according to KTO.

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]