Hallyu revisited: challenges and opportunities for the South Korean tourism

The tourism industry in South Korea has undergone unprecedented growth and faced multiple changes since 2000, thanks to the recent emergence and growing popularity and influence of the Hallyu phenomenon. Although an earlier research paper in Tourism Geographies in 2009 provided insights into the relationship between the Hallyu and patterns of inbound tourism, little scholarly effort has been made to investigate how the Korean tourism industry has evolved in response to the challenges and opportunities generated by the Hallyu. The findings suggest that until recently, the government did not have a comprehensive mid- and long-term tourism policy dedicated to the Hallyu and its impacts on tourism. Diversified trends and patterns of Hallyu-related tourism, a paucity of longitudinal approaches to market segmentation research and long-term trend analyses, and a lack of coordination between the Korean government and key tourism agencies have been also identified as key issues and challenges.