Descendants of the Sun star is new face of Korea tourism

“CAPTAIN YOO SI-JIN” is officially the Korean Tourism Honorary Ambassador for 2016 and will feature in television commercials and various promotional activities for South Korea, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) said in a press release this week.

“Every year, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) produces a variety of captivating Korean tourism TV commercials for overseas promotion. This year, in order to portray a dynamic and sophisticated image, as well as to resonate with the global hallyu fans, KTO has chosen Song Joong-ki, the main lead of the latest hit drama, Descendants of the Sun, to be the promotional model for Korean tourism,” the agency said.

The commercials will be filmed at the major locations where the drama was filmed, including Taebaek and Jeongseon in Gangwon-do. “With a concept of ‘Walk into the Story’, the story delivers a feeling as if one is the main character by stimulating all five senses,” the KTO said.

Besides the TV commercials, print advertisements will be produced by the end of June and are planned for a joint release to overseas media by early July.

Korean tourism TV commercials with different concepts each year have “attracted countless people’s awareness”, the KTO noted in its press release. “In particular, ‘Korea. Your Story’ featuring hallyu (Korean wave) star Lee Min-ho has a hit record of 37 million views during its advertising campaign period, the highest number of views among all the tourism videos in the world.”

The KTO added: “There are plans to transform the various drama filming locations into tourist attractions, and the overseas co-promotion with Song Joong-ki is indubitably expected to unfold positive results.”