Korea Travel Festa 2024 to hit capital this weekend

The 4-piece K-pop band HIGHLIGHT, with famous hits such as Fiction and Beautiful Night, will take the stage at Korea Travel Festa 2024 on May 25-26 in Hanoi.

Korea Travel Festa 2024 will also feature performances by the 1MILLION dance group with dances choreographed by Lia Kim - a famous choreographer of Korean music bands. Singers Min, Isaac, and Tran Ngoc Anh will also bring many special performances to the event. Not to mention the Korean Cultural Heritage Performance by the Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation and the musical Vamp & Hunter.

The band HIGHLIGHT says they are impressed by the hospitality of the Vietnamese audience. Photo: KTO

Audiences will be treated to a performance that blends the music of both countries, from the vibrant K-pop dancing of the cover dance group The-Acode to the traditional Vietnamese instruments of the Co La band.

As part of the program, the final stage of the K-pop Cover Dance Contest is a competition among talented dance and singing groups from all over Vietnam. The top stars of K-pop and V-pop will perform majestic shows.

In K-Town, Ocean City, Gia Lam District, Hanoi, the Korea Travel Festa 2024 will kick off to further promote South Korean tourism to Vietnamese under the auspices of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) with the support of the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

With more than 40 booths divided into many different themes such as tourism, culture, fashion, and e-sports from exhibitors from both Vietnam and South Korea, the festival provides an interesting experience for visitors.

The League of Legends Championship Korea (LCK) booth is one of the largest booths at the event, with corners dedicated to LCK publications, the prestigious LCK trophy, and many activities. The appearance of five famous players promises to be a frenzy for football fans at Korea Travel Festa 2024.

On May 25, the Korea Tourism Organization signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Vingroup, the organizing partner of Korea Travel Festa 2024, in which both sides pledged to support each other in promoting and organizing cultural and tourism events between South Korea and Vietnam and to actively participate in cultural, tourism and information exchange activities between the two countries.

"Vietnam was the fifth source market for inbound tourism to South Korea by 2023. In the future, we plan to promote Korea-related content to the Vietnamese market by developing diverse tourism products and conducting many unique marketing activities. We look forward to receiving the support of the Vietnamese people," said Lee Hak Ju, Deputy Director General of the Korea Tourism Organization.

Lee Hak Ju, Deputy Director General of the Korea Tourism Organization, speaks at Korea Tourism Night on May 24. Photo: The Hanoi Times

According to Lee Jae Hoon, Representative of the Korea Tourism Organization in Vietnam, South Korea welcomed 420,000 Vietnamese tourists in 2023. Meanwhile, up to 3.6 million Korean tourists chose Vietnam as their travel destination last year. At present, South Korea is still the largest international market for Vietnam.

In the first quarter of 2024, South Korea hosted more than 167,000 Vietnamese visitors, an increase of 32.6% from the same period in 2023 and a 96.9% recovery from the same period in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Vietnam still maintains its record as the largest Southeast Asian source market for South Korea so far in 2024. This steady growth has increasingly demonstrated the importance of the Vietnamese market to Korean tourism.

"We have prepared many interesting activities at the Korea Travel Festa and hope that visitors will have fun, find a lot of useful information about Korean tourism, and decide to travel to Korea in the future. We hope that about 550,000 Vietnamese tourists will visit South Korea this year, the same level as in 2019 before the Covid-19 epidemic, and contribute to the further development of tourism exchanges between the two countries," Lee said.