By Chung Ah-young
The One Asia Festival, a Korean cultural promotion event, will be held in Busan from Oct. 1 to 23 to attract more foreign tourists to the southeastern port city.
The Busan Tourism Organization (BTO) said Monday that it will host the hallyu (Korean wave) festival featuring concerts, food programs and other cultural events across the city along with the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) which will take place Oct. 6-15.
“As Busan is the second-largest city in the nation, we will play a leading role in boosting tourism,” BTO President Shim Jeong-bo said.
To achieve that, the BTO has come up with various plans to increase the number of
inbound tourists, planning to attract more than 150,000 Chinese-speaking travelers through a diverse selection of events during the festival.
The BTO said that the festival will be held as a representative annual event similar to the BIFF. It will spend some 10 billion won on it this year.
“Busan aims to draw some 2.7 million foreign tourists this year,” Shim said. “Korea needs to diversify tourist destinations because now tourism is too Seoul-focused.”
The BTO said that foreign travelers who come for BIFF can enjoy other activities through the festival.
The concerts will include performances not only by K-pop idols but also other musicians from different music genres. The BTO said that the lineup has not been decided yet. There will also be traditional music concerts from other Asian countries.
The festival will also include the Hallyu Star Art Exhibition and K-Beauty Expo.
For the Hallyu Star Art Exhibition, art featuring Korean stars created by Korean and Chinese artists will be on display. Also, celebrities will donate their personal items and their own paintings for the exhibition.
The K-Beauty event will provide foreign tourists with opportunities to sample a variety of Korean cosmetic products.
The highlight of the festival will be “Taste of Busan,” a food event in which Korean, Chinese and Japanese chefs will cook their national cuisines and demonstrate their cooking skills. Also, chefs of Busan’s famous restaurants will take part in a cooking contest.