Busan Tourism Brand (Play. Work. Live. Busan) Wins the 2023 Korean Tourism Star Awards
- Contents
-
◈ Busan’s (Play. Work. Live. Busan) tourism brand earned the top prize at the 2023 Korean Tourism Star Awards, the most prestigious awards within the tourism sector in Korea. This is the second consecutive year it won this award, following the selection of the city’s Green Railway and Blueline Park in 2022. This year, however, it was the inaugural winner of the tourism brand marketing category.
◈ The winning of the award is expected to shape a boom in Busan tourism by publicizing the city as somewhere everyone wants to enjoy, work, and live through active use of brand marketing to attract domestic and foreign tourists, as well as enhance Busan’s image towards international tourists.
○ The Korean Tourism Star is Korea’s most prestigious award bestowed upon tourism resources, local governments and organizations, and individuals that elevated interest in tourism and that contributed to the development of Korean tourism by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Since 2010, the awards have been awarded annually.
○ Busan and the Busan Tourism Organization have achieved prizes three times, including two in consecutive years. The first came in 2016, with the Original City Center Story Tour.
□ The Korean Tourism Star brand marketing category is a newly added category in 2023, and Busan being the category’s inaugural winner makes the victory all the more sweet. It shows that Busan’s tourism brand is broadly recognized and being promoted exceptionally well by local governments and affiliated agencies.
○ It was finally selected by the selection committee after experts’ written evaluations and local governments’ presentations and assessments following the recommendation of candidates in August 2023.
□ ‘Play. Work. Live. Busan’ works to raise awareness at home and abroad of Busan tourism and presents the city as somewhere to visit, work, and live. It expresses Busan’s diverse fascinations and identity as an international maritime city.
○ Busan started developing its tourism brand in 2020, when it was named as Korea’s first international tourism city. It developed ‘Play. Work. Live. Busan’ in September 2022.
○ Busan’s tourism brand emphasizes its mixing of stunning natural environments with bustling urban areas. It also highlights Busan’s subtle charms and shows off that the city values creation, inspiration, the sea, and innovation.
○ Busan is working to become a bucket-list destination and to brand itself as one of the world’s most unique locales.
□ As a result of being selected at the Korean Tourism Star Awards, an increase in Busan tourism is expected, and Busan’s tourism potential will be promoted through PR and marketing.
○ The city of Busan made two seasons of the ‘Moon Rabbit’ for tourism PR purposes, which were delivered to 10 countries, including seven Asian countries and three European and American countries. Busan is vigorously publicizing its tourism brand through B2B presentations (Japan, Singapore, etc.) and B2C road shows (Thailand, Vietnam, etc.).
○ Through an active PR campaign at domestic and foreign tourism events, the city is hopeful that the brand elevates Busan’s status as a city to travel to and is expected to attract tourists to the city’s many treasures.
