[정필=김지태 문화전문기자 kspa@jeongpil.com] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, together with the Korea Tourism Organization and Gangwon-do, will hold the ‘2023 Winter Korea Festival Day’ on January 19 at 5:00 pm at the outdoor stage of Yongpyong Resort.
This event is to promote the ‘2023-2024 Visit Korea Year’ and to announce the resumption of winter sports tourism in Korea, which was suspended for two years due to COVID-19, while wishing for the successful hosting of the ‘2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games’, which is approaching one year ahead. prepared for The ‘2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games’ is the first Winter Youth Olympic Games to be held in Asia, and will be held from January 19 to February 1, 2024 in Gangneung City, Pyeongchang County, Jeongseon County, and Hoengseong County, Gangwon Province. Second Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Cho Yong-man will visit the site of the event to support the success of the ‘2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games’ and welcome tourists visiting Korea to experience Korean winter sports and culture.
The official symbol of the ‘2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games’ unveiled,
Public Relations Ambassador Kim Yu-na also cheered on the athletes, and the second public relations ambassador, Breaking National Team Kim Ye-ri, was appointed.
Official symbols of the event, such as the mascot and theme song of the 2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games, will also be announced on the same day. For the symbol of the Games, a contest was held for youth (aged 14-24) to select ideas for developing a mascot and theme song, and then experts, the Organizing Committee, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and contest participants modified and supplemented them together. Completed. About 60 domestic and foreign teenagers, including Park Soo-yeon (college student), winner of the mascot contest, and Kim Geun-hak (college student), winner of the theme song contest, will reveal the mascot, theme song, and choreography.
Yuna Kim, the public relations ambassador for the ‘2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games’, will also attend to support the athletes and deliver a message wishing for the successful hosting of the Games. She also appoints Korea’s first breaking national team player Kim Ye-ri as her second ambassador. Kim Ye-ri won a bronze medal in the break dance event at the 2018 Buenos Aires Summer Youth Olympics.
‘2023~2024 Visit Korea Year’, plans to recruit 4,000 tourists to Korea by April 23
This ‘Winter Korea Festival Day’ begins with Cheongsa lanterns and torches skiing greeting tourists visiting Korea. Following this, Ailee (K-pop), Saengdonggam Crew (media performance), and CPI Crew (EDM, dance) will perform celebratory performances to publicize K-content and add enthusiasm to the festival.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization have recruited about 300 tourists to Korea as a winter sports tourism product in connection with this event, and plan to attract about 4,000 tourists to Korea by March of this year. To this end, in collaboration with Gangwon-do, a familiarization tour (pre-exploration trip, January 15-20) is being conducted for Malaysian travel agencies and media officials, including field trips to major tourist destinations in Gangwon-do, skiing experiences, and meetings with domestic travel agencies.
Vice Minister Cho Yong-man asked for a lot of interest in the event, saying, “The ‘2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympics’ will be an event in which youths are the protagonists and, like the slogan ‘Grow Together, Shine Forever’, youths grow together and attract attention.” He also said, “Winter sports will bring new joy to tourists visiting Korea,” and “I hope the ‘Winter Korea Festival Day’ will serve as an opportunity to discover such joy.”