Korean Air CEO Cho Yang-ho, left, and Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, shake hands during a meeting at the British Museum, London, Tuesday. / Courtesy of Korean Air

By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter

Korean Air will further expand its program of global cultural sponsorship by making a significant investment to the British Museum's new set of handheld Multimedia Guides, with a five-year partnership to 2014. The Multimedia Guide, which will be officially launched Tuesday, is a touch screen device with audiovisual commentaries available in eleven languages, including for the first time, Korean.

In celebration of the sponsorship, a Korean Air B747-400 aircraft has been 'wrapped' with images of artwork from the museum. The aircraft made its inaugural flight from Incheon to London, Tuesday, and will subsequently be used on routes to Europe and the Americas.

``Our sponsorship of multimedia guides will further help museum visitors to appreciate important objects and artwork in greater detail by listening to informative commentaries,'' Korean Air CEO Cho Yang-ho said.

There will also be a children's and British Sign Language Multimedia Guide, as well as an audio guide for the visually impaired. This set of guides provides a state-of-the art means for visitors to the British Museum to learn about its unparalleled collection and make the most of their visit.

``Korean Air's sponsorship of the project has been vital in allowing the museum to greatly increase the number of objects that we offer through our handheld guides and across the major languages that our visitors use,'' Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum said. ``As a museum for the world, we are delighted to be able to offer our visitors the opportunity to learn about this unparalleled collection in so many languages and in a more interactive way,'' he added.

Several celebratory initiatives have also been launched including an online quiz on www.koreanair.com with questions relating to Korean Air's sponsorship of the British Museum. The quiz will be online until 31 January 2010 with various prizes up for grabs.

Korean Air is no stranger to supporting the arts, as this is the third such project in recent years. In 2008 Korean Air signed an agreement to sponsor the multimedia guide at the Louvre Museum in Paris and earlier this year the airline sponsored the introduction of the Korean language to the multimedia guide at Russia's State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Korean Air also offers a ``Flying Art Ambassadors'' service on selected routes that include London, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam and Incheon. Specially chosen and trained Korean Air cabin attendants, including those with degrees in art and culture, museum or curator experience, provide information about museums, artists and famous artworks at the destination.

In addition, passengers traveling with Korean Air in first and prestige class on the Incheon-London route will be given special edition baggage name tags decorated with images of the Lewis Chessmen, the famous pieces displayed in the British Museum. Also, members of Korean Air's frequent flyer scheme, Skypass, will receive throughout 2010 a discount on the cost of the hire of the multimedia guide upon presenting their membership cards at the British Museum.

jhdo@koreatimes.co.kr