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More than nine out of 10 French hallyu fans, who are interested in the Korean culture, want to travel Korea, a survey showed Tuesday.
A poll at tourism promotion Website(www.visitkorea.or.kr), conducted by the state-run Korea Tourism Organization's Paris branch, displayed that more than 90 percent of 3,775 respondents said they want to visit Korea. Of them, 75.8 percent said they will come to Korea without fail.
The result tells that hallyu has been promoting the Korean tourism industry directly or indirectly.
According to the poll, most respondents preferred hallyu theme tour packages, which include K-pop concerts and drama-related tourist attractions. In a selection of two or more purposes of visiting Korea, the general sightseeing tour was the largest with 96 percent, followed by the tour with K-pop concert by 80 percent and that with drama shooting site by 41.2 percent. The tour for study was the lowest 34.2 percent.
On the other hand, 169 respondents of the polled have already visited Korea were content with travelling. As many as 95 percent of them replied they were satisfied with their tour to Korea.
Surprisingly, all respondents said they have enjoyed Korean pop music. Dramas came second hallyu content with 91.6 percent, followed by movies with 69.6 percent and Korean traditional culture with 50.5 percent.
The survey also confirmed that K-pop experience helped the French tourists get better image on Korea.
As many as 72 percent said that they got to know Korea after they listened to the K-pop, the highest, and 66.3 percent have got interested interest in Korean culture. Even more, 62.5 percent considered staying in Korea for a long time and 41.2 percent started to learn Korean language.
More than 90 percent of the respondents showed strong interest in most of general Korean culture. Among the attractive Korean content was Hangeul or Korean language with 91.5 percent, Korean food with 90.9 percent, traditional culture with 83 percent and dramas with 69.9 percent. The respondents were allowed to choose two or more in the category.
Meanwhile, Big Bang and 2NE1, idol singer groups of YG Entertainment, were most popular among the French respondents. Among boy groups, Big Bang won 50 percent of the polled, followed by Super Junior with 45 percent, Shinee with 35.5 percent, and Beast with 33.8 percent. 2PM was the lowest with 24.2 percent. 2NE1 was the most popular girl groups with 64.8 percent, followed by Girl’s Generation with 45.4 percent, miss A with 31.5 percent, f(x) with 29.4 percent and T-ara with 25.9 percent.
“The poll proves that hallyu fans are highly motivated to travel Korea,” said Park Jae-seok, Paris branch manager of the Korean tour promotion body. “We will make our efforts to increase the number of French fans of hallyu." An estimated 100,000 French people are fans of hallyu or Korean culture, according to the branch manager.
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