Sunday 24 April 2016

THE HALLYU Korean cultural wave attracts millions of tourists worldwide

Myeong-dong, one of the busiest places in Seoul and a premier shopping district of Korea is among the most popular tourist destinations.





 This one-square-kilometer commercial neighbourhood in central Seoul’s Jung-gu district is one of the city’s most important shopping areas. And if you’ve ever visited, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that Myeong-dong receives more than two million visitors every day. And given its central location, high volume of foot traffic, and cachet as a heart of cutting-edge Korean youth culture, Myeong-dong merchants pay among the world’s highest rents. Although Seoul has many shopping districts, northern Seoul destinations like Dongdaemun or Namdaemun focus primarily on low-price, fast fashion. By contrast, Myeong-dong is where you can find mid- to highpriced luxury and designer brands. Surprisingly, it was only in the 1970s that Myeong-dong became a major shopping destination. Although today we take it for granted, Myeong-dong really took off as a tourism destination in the early 2000s with the rise of the Hallyu Korean cultural wave. Watching as huge numbers of Japanese and other foreign tourists flocked to the area, and it was recorded that over 14 million tourists visited Korea in 2014. Tourism in Korea was limited to specific things like environmental areas and nature, monuments and museums, the historic old mansions and so, but it is now something completely different, the combination of a variety of different things speak to different senses, which makes Korea increasingly a top touristic destination to many from around the world.


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