Olympic Tourism Drive

[Anchor Lead]

With the PyeongChang Winter Olympics approaching fast, efforts to attract foreign visitors are also under way. Representatives of some famous Japanese characters have come to Korea to promote the games through social media.

[Pkg]

Japanese officials in charge of social media characters that represent Japan's local provinces have visited PyeongChang Korea where the Winter Olympics will kick off in February. They take photos and film videos with their characters at Olympic facilities such as the ski jump slope and the opening and closing ceremony venues. The materials are then posted on social media to promote the winter games. Some characters representing Japanese local governments are beloved figures by the public and boast a huge following of 200- to 300-thousand social media followers.

[Soundbite] Sasaki : "I'm from Niigata Prefecture in Japan. I introduce Lerch-san on social media. Lerch-san is the first character in Niigata to promote skiing."

A total of 12 local authorities in Japan are taking part in the PyeongChang games cheering campaign using social media characters that's organized by the Korea Tourism Organization. Visiting Korea for 3 days, participants are introducing key tourist destinations in the country such as Gyeongbok-gung Palace and Gwanghwamun in downtown Seoul and the Olympic stadium in PyeongChang.

[Soundbite] Lee Hak-joo (Korea Tourism Organization) : "We organized the "character cheering tour" to attract more visitors to Gangwon-do Province and Korea during the Olympic period."

The Korea Tourism Organization plans to continue similar promotional efforts for the Olympics catering to the specific characteristics of individual countries.