VANK held a seminar on April 12, 2025, at the Korea Culture Foundation conference room in Yangjae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, together with the Korea Tourism Organization. This seminar was an opportunity for the two organizations to jointly explore promotional strategies for revitalizing tourism in Gangwon Province and to discuss specific cooperation plans.
The seminar began with a presentation on VANK’s activities, followed by in-depth discussions on various promotional ideas and actionable plans for collaboration between the two organizations.
VANK researcher Kwon So-young introduced the “Korea Ambassador Training Project,” the national policy platform “Woollim,” the national policy communication platform Yeollim, and major cooperation partners and ongoing projects. She highlighted VANK’s efforts to cultivate youth and teenagers as digital diplomats, metaverse diplomats, and global Korea ambassadors in collaboration with key institutions such as the Korea Heritage Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Korea Culture Foundation. Through these initiatives, VANK has continuously worked to transform Korea’s national image and brand in the 21st century to position Korea as the “center of Asia,” the “gateway to Northeast Asia,” and a country that shares dreams and friendship with the world.
Next, the national policy proposal platform “Woollim” was introduced. Woollim is a participatory platform where citizens can directly propose policies in the fields of history, culture, tourism, and diplomacy, helping to shape Korea’s history and culture collaboratively. It also provides government agencies with a channel to listen to the voices of the people, serving as a communication bridge between citizens and the government. Researcher Kwon emphasized that Woollim is evolving beyond simple citizen participation into a public-private cooperation system.
Following that, the national policy communication platform “Yeollim”, launched on March 1, 2025, was introduced. Yeollim shares policies and content related to government departments’ history, culture, tourism, and diplomacy, while providing a space for citizens to openly discuss and share their opinions. Researcher Kwon stated, “Through Yeollim, citizens can understand government policy intentions better, and the government can improve policies based on communication with the public.”
In the subsequent session, various promotional ideas for cooperation between the two organizations were proposed.
VANK youth researcher Jeong In-sung proposed expanding customized fam tours. In particular, she suggested inviting VANK researchers for an experiential “Gangwon First, Experienced by VANK” fam tour, then creating and promoting content based on it. This approach could effectively promote the region by leveraging VANK’s youth network. Additionally, Jeong proposed the “My Own Gwandong Byeolgok” stamp tour program—a modern reinterpretation of the classic literary work “Gwandong Byeolgok” as tourism content—connecting cultural heritage sites across Gangwon Province with an immersive, passport-style stamp collection system to encourage cultural resource exploration.
Youth researcher Park Ji-eun proposed the concept of “wellness tourism” using the slogan “Gangwon Getaway.” Wellness tourism refers to travel that harmonizes physical, mental, and social well-being to heal body and mind. Park explained that Gangwon’s natural environment, hot springs, and sports resources are ideally suited to wellness tourism. She also emphasized the need for strategic content planning in light of the “Visit Gangwon Year 2025–2026,” proposing to strengthen theme-based recommended travel content to effectively communicate the charm of wellness tourism.
Youth researcher Hong Dan-bi suggested producing “Gangwon K-POP Playlist” content. She pointed out that the official Gangwon tourism YouTube channel “VISIT GANGWON” is primarily short-form content and emphasized the need to strengthen long-form content. Based on this, she proposed creating playlists featuring K-POP music and OSTs related to Gangwon’s drama filming locations. Furthermore, she stressed the importance of history-linked tourism content introducing independence activists from Gangwon Province on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation. Hong emphasized that Gangwon should not be consumed merely as a nature-centric tourist destination, but efforts should be made to convey the region’s unique historical identity alongside.
Researcher Kwon So-young proposed an SNS participatory campaign called “Made by Me: Reasons to Visit Gangwon.” She explained that by sharing reasons for visiting through comments based on personal experiences, both Gangwon residents and those interested in the province can naturally brand the region through citizen participation. She added, “This process marks the start of participatory regional branding, where local residents and visitors jointly create the region’s image.” Moreover, she emphasized that ideas collected from the campaign could be turned into content through VANK’s social media channels, expanding into “living regional branding content” that reflects citizens’ voices rather than one-sided promotion.
Closing the seminar, VANK Director Park Ki-tae expressed his expectations, saying, “Starting from this seminar, we expect to highlight not only Gangwon’s tourism resources but also the role of the Korea Tourism Organization.” He added, “Through Yeollim, Korea Tourism Organization’s tourism content and policy information can be introduced effectively, providing a communication platform where VANK members and tourism ambassadors freely exchange opinions.” He expressed confidence that this would activate public participation in tourism policies and greatly contribute to policy promotion and practical improvements.
Director Park emphasized the importance of public-private cooperation, saying, “The time has come for governance-based tourism policies co-created by citizens and government.” He also remarked, “Hallyu (Korean Wave) should no longer remain limited to popular culture but expand into ‘K-Policy,’ evolving into a new global inspirational trend. It is very meaningful to collaborate with the Korea Tourism Organization in this transformative process.” Finally, he pledged, “We will undertake strategic promotional activities so that the Korea Tourism Organization’s policies exert positive global influence and develop into global policies that communicate with the world’s 8 billion people.”
Korea Tourism Organization Gangwon Tourism Cooperation Officer Park So-young commented, “We plan to continue this cooperation between the Korea Tourism Organization and VANK as a model of exemplary collaboration for other local governments.” She added, “‘Tourism’ and ‘promotion’ are closely interconnected, and if the Korea Tourism Organization, with expertise in tourism, collaborates with VANK, which has strengths in global promotion, we can more effectively publicize Gangwon’s appeal at home and abroad.”
VANK Strategic Planning Researcher Koo Seung-hyun stated, “VANK will cooperate with the Korea Tourism Organization to publicize Gangwon’s characteristics internationally, thereby contributing to strengthening Korea’s national brand value.” She added, “By communicating the Korea Tourism Organization’s excellent policies to the public and reflecting citizens’ opinions in policies, we will continuously improve policy quality.”