I came to the festival on the last day on Sunday and I felt that K-Festival this year is quite different from the last one. The K-Festival this time is more festive, more attractive and more entertaining, with the present of K-pop boyband Neo Planet Icon (NPI) that make many teens girls hysterical, and also what impressed me a lot is Gangwon-do Province (here on referred as Gangwon) and its many beautiful tourist sites and annual events.
Gangwon is a province located on the east side of Korean Peninsula which became the main focus of the K-Festival this year with theme “K-Festival and Enjoy! Gangwon”. While enjoying the festival programs on Sunday, I met Aprillia Trilestari, Manager Research Development KTO Jakarta Office. She told me that K-Festival this year is actually to promote Gangwon Province and its various tourist attractions to Indonesians.
“Indonesians who go traveling to Korea always visit places such as Nami Island, Seorak Mountain, and Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) area but sometimes they are not aware that those places are in Gangwon. Because of the potential Indonesian tourists, Gangwon Province eager to attract more people in Indonesia to visit and enjoy Gangwon,” Aprillia said.
Besides that, Aprillia added, Gangwon wants to promote as ‘a Muslim friendly’ tourist destination in Korea by providing facilities for Muslim tourists such as Musholla ( a mosque but the size is smaller ) and many restaurants that serve halal food. So Muslim tourists, mostly from Indonesia, will feel comfortable during their visit to Gangwon.
“Our target this year, the number of Indonesia tourists visiting Gangwon increase by 20 percent of total Indonesia tourists visit to Korea,” Aprillia said.
Based on data from KTO Jakarta Office, the number of Indonesians visit to Korea tend to increase every year. On March 2015, there are 39,879 Indonesians visiting Korea for business, official visit, training, and in majority as to 23, 927 persons visit Korea for pleasure (excursion).
K-Festival and Enjoy ! Gangwon presented many programs and successfully attracted many people to come. At photo zone, I saw long queue of visitors who wants to pose wearing Korean traditional clothing Hanbok. At Cloud Bread Exhibition booth, many kids happily enjoyed drawing and colouring pictures. At Gangwon Province booth, of course, we can get many information and guide book about Gangwon tourism. And at the main stage, visitors can enjoy Samulnori and Nanta performances, there was also K-beauty make-up demonstration.
Last but not least the performance of a new comer Korean boyband Neo Planet Icon-NPI. NPI consist of 6 members; Liyond, Rown, Pyeongki, Jonathan, Eunsu and Jun enliven the K-Festival not merely as a guest stars but as an official tourism ambassador of Gangwon Province.
Their appearance and stage performance made their fans-mostly teenage girls-screaming and crazy about. What is very surprising is when NPI sang a dangdut ( a kind of Indonesian music genre ) song entitled “Sakitnya Tuh di Sini” which is very popular in Indonesia today, an another Indonesian romantic song “Janji Suci”. Some of NPI members also showed their ability to speak Bahasa. Awesome.
From Gangwon tourism photo exhibition on K-Festival 2015, I relished and admired the beauty of nature of Gangwon which is also well-known as “The Land of Nature”. If I have the opportunity to visit Korea, I will explore its beauty for sure.
*this article also published at blog.korea.net and at korea.net
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