Visit Korea Year
To celebrate the country’s tourism promotional events, such as the “2016-2018, Visit Korea Year” and the Korea Grand Sale, the largest shopping festival which runs for 29 days from Feb. 1, 2016, the Visit Korea Committee, a foundation under the Ministry of Culture and Sports, has launched the "K-Smile Campaign" for foreign tourists in in Myeong-dong Street, downtown Seoul, on Feb. 12.
The event started with performance of Korea Traditional Percussion Group U-so and Korean hip hop dance team Gorilla Crew. Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Kim Jong-deok, “Non-summit” members Sam Okyere, Alberto Mondi and Nikolai Johnsen took part in the mini talk with a theme of “Reply K-Smile!” to discuss tourism in Korea and culture of kindness.
Kim said, “To celebrate the 2016-2018 Visit Korea Year, we are conducting the K-Smile Campaign in a bid to create Korea as a place to revisit by welcoming foreign visitors with our kindness and smile.”
The campaign is a "nationwide friendly campaign which aims to raise the level of tourists’ satisfaction by improvements in the tourism sector, including accommodation, transportation, food, and shopping, and successfully host the 2016-2018 Visit Korea Year and the upcoming 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics by building a culture of kindness.