Tourism agency changes slogan again

By Lee Chang-sup

This month, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) adopted a new slogan, "Imagine Your Korea," as part of its efforts to attract 20 million foreigners to the country by 2020. The KTO hopes that the catchphrase will portray Korea as a "trendy and innovative" travel destination. However, the country's ever-changing slogans often confuse both foreigners and Koreans.

Since 1998, Korea has been adopting a new tourism slogan whenever a new administration takes office. "Imagine Your Korea" replaced "Korea, Be Inspired," which was adopted in 2010 during the Lee Myung-bak administration. "Korea, Be Inspired," superseded "Korea, Sparkling," which was picked in 2007 during the Roh Moo-hyun administration. "Korea, Sparkling," in turn, succeeded "Dynamic Korea," which was adopted in 1998 during the Kim Dae-jung administration.

Last year, the KTO also started the "Wiki Korea" campaign, which features Korean rapper and YouTube sensation Psy in six 15-second commercials. The organization used the term "Wiki," hoping that these commercials will become an encyclopedia of Korean culture.

However, these ever-changing slogans have been criticized regarding their representation of Korea. For example, some people thought "Korea, Sparkling" made Korea sound like a producer of bottled sparkling water, while "Korea, Be Inspired" sounded arrogant because it seemed to assume that foreigners will immediately be inspired when they visit Korea. They also criticized "Dynamic Korea" for making Korea sound serious and bland

According to the "Imagine Your Korea" website, the KTO adopted the slogan after identifying the country's core values, which were "diverse," "vibrant," "creative" and "intriguing."

It also says the logo's swirling letter "O" in "Korea" signifies a traditional Korean dance hat, while the letter "K" looks just like two wide open arms.

Changing slogans is costly. Although KTO officials have not mentioned how much money the organization spent to adopt the new slogan this year, it spent $5 million in developing the slogan "Korea, Sparkling" in 2007. If a foreign brand consultant is hired, the cost reportedly increases to several million dollars.

Such multimillion-dollar spending can be justified if the new slogan attracts more foreigners to Korea by portraying the country in a positive light, but this is difficult to estimate. The Presidential Council on Nation Branding said for the third consecutive year, North Korea is still what comes to foreigners' minds first when thinking about Korea. In addition, the ever-changing slogans have a negative impact on groups other than visitors. For example, they convey to foreign investors that Korea is an unpredictable country where anything can change under a new administration. This inconsistency frustrates foreign investors, according to the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

Nevertheless, the government could claim that slogan is effective. After all, Korea attracted 12 million visitors last year, more than double the five million visitors to the country in 2000. It is possible, however, that these foreigners could still have visited Korea regardless of the new slogans. Other factors like the weaker Korean currency and the "Hallyu" (Korean Wave) could have also been what attracted foreign visitors.

Thus, the necessity of changing tourism slogans frequently has not yet been demonstrated for Korea. Many countries do not change their slogans as often. For instance, India has not changed its "Incredible India" slogan since 2002.

Some countries, like the United States, do not even have a tourism slogan. Branding analysts say North Korea, not South Korea, needs a tourism slogan, like "Nuke-free North Korea" and "Safer Place for Foreign Visitors," if it wants to attract foreign visitors.

For the past 16 years, it seems that changing the slogan and logo is the first thing incoming tourism leaders do in an attempt to convey that they are doing something new or different from what their predecessors did.

"I have noticed that new bosses often like to play with brands when they come into office. Lee Myung-bak did it with Seoul City, choosing the ‘Hi Seoul!' slogan through an online contest. Previous KTO heads have also done it," said Michael Breen, chairman of Insight Communications Consultants, a public relations company.

"This tendency is that it gives you the feeling that the heads of organizations think that they own the brand. … They are just temporary custodians, more temporary in fact than most of their hard-working staff."

He said slogans should not be chosen from a public contest. It should not only sound good or cool — it should capture an organization's strategy developed from significant research and discussion.

He added that "Imagine Your Korea" doesn't say much about Korea and thus, can be interpreted by a tourist in any number of ways. "That suggests to me that the people marketing Korea to tourists don't know what to market, so they just want to leave it to the visitor," he said.

Rewriting a new tourism slogan might not be an option for the KTO at this point, but the next tourism heads should first check whether changing a slogan is effective enough to warrant its significant cost.

Lee Chang-sup is the Korea Times editor-in-chief and vice president. Contact him at editorial@ktimes.co.kr.

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