In the Corona era, when international tourism exchanges were blocked, the Korea Tourism Organization (President Ahn Young-bae) is again trying to promote Korea. The corporation has been introducing virtual experience spaces for Korean travel to the world since Nov. 12 using "ZEPETO," a mobile-based 3D avatar creation app, for the younger generation born in the mid-1990s to the early 2000s.
ZEPETO is a global platform with 190 million members around the world, creating avatars featuring one's personality using facial recognition, augmented reality (AR), and 3D technology and enjoying social activities in virtual space. ZEPETO's main users are in their 10s and 20s who are familiar with the mobile environment, and the corporation decided to pursue the project with Naver Jet (CEO Kim Dae-wook), the operator of the company, as it believes that it is the best platform to produce content aimed at Generation Z.
Korea's virtual destination built in ZEPETO is Hang River Park. Han River Park topped the survey of 22,000 ZEPETO users in August on "The Tourist Site I Want to Visit Through ZEPETO," and is gaining huge popularity, with about 257,000 visitors a day after its launch. Users can enjoy the Rainbow Fountain and Namsan N Tower of Banpo Bridge as if they were actually at the riverside in ZEPETO, experience flea markets and food trucks recreating the night market of Bamdokkaebi in Seoul, cook ramen at convenience stores, and even cross the Han River on water taxis/tube. You can also make your vlogs and music videos and share them on your social media. In addition to Korean, there are five other languages available: English, Chinese, Japanese, and Indonesian.
Also, the corporation is gaining popularity among users by implementing various tourism contents favored by Generation Z in ZEPETO. Based on MBTI, a personality type test, the mini-game, which is recommended to travel to Korea, began on October 15 and has so far seen 51,000 SNS shares among about 310,000 users. Also, a map-making contest for domestic tourist attractions, a hanbok production contest, and an event using the 3D avatar of ITZY, an honorary ambassador for Korean tourism, are expected to stimulate Generation Z's interest in traveling to Korea.
"It is a very new attempt to promote Korea's tourism by utilizing digital realistic content, focusing on the growth of Generation Z, a future potential customer, in a long tunnel called COVID-19, said Hwang Seung-hyun, head of the international tourism office at the corporation.
