Indonesia beauty pageant winners to visit Korea

Winners of the Puteri Muslimah Indonesia 2017 / Courtesy of Korea Tourism Organization

By Jung Min-ho

The winners of an Indonesia beauty pageant will travel around Korea for about a week, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) said Thursday.

The KTO said it has invited three winners of the Puteri Muslimah Indonesia 2017 to Korea as part of an effort to diversify the country’s tourism market beyond China and Japan.

According to the KTO, they will look around some of the popular tourist places in Seoul and PyeongChang from Aug. 12 to 17, and their travels will be aired on Indosiar, an Indonesian TV station.

The KTO and Indosiar have planned and coordinated the program together over the past six months.

“Women in their 20s and 30s are key marketing targets of the program,” a KTO official said. “We hope it will improve the image of Korea as a luxurious tourist destination.”

According to the KTO, more than 17.2 million foreigners visited Korea last year. Nearly half of them were Chinese (8 million), followed by Japanese (2.3 million).