Korea Tourism Organization announced 100 representative tourist attractions in Korea 2017

'Jangheung Jeong Nam Jin Saturday Market'.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization selected 100 tourist sites that represent Korea on the 9th.
Thirty-three sites including Hongik University in Seoul and the DMZ in Gangwon-do were newly added to the main tourist attractions this year.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's '100 tourist sites representing Korea list' was introduced for the first time in 2013, and it promoted 100 local tourist attractions once every two years.

'Jeju Jeolmul Recreational Forest'

This year, 33 new places were added including Hongdae street in Seoul, Itaewon Tourism Special District, Lotte World, Incheon Songdo Central Park, Gwangmyeong Cave, Kangwon Goseong DMZ, Cheonnam Cheongsando, Ulsan Tae Wae river seepri Bamboo Forest etc.


In addition, there are a number of places that have been transformed into local specialized tourism resources by reinterpreting existing resources such as Donghwa Village in Songwol-dong Incheon, Jeonbuk Samseong Culture and Art Village, Gwangju Yanglim-dong Historical Culture Village, Jeju Geological Trail and Kangnung Coffee Street.

There has been increase in the percentage of young people visiting place in the top 100 list such as Lotte World, Everland, Vivaldi Park Ocean World, Jeju Eco Land Theme Park and Seoul Land, as well as specialized streets such as Myeongdong, Hongdae, Itaewon, Insa-dong and Gamcheon Culture Village.

Kukseong Seomjin River Train Village

The traditional market, which has been transformed into a culture tourism type market, is also increasingly used as tourism resources. Traditional markets such as Plaza Market, Daein Art Market, Jeong nam Jin Saturday Market, Seogwipo Daily Olle Market were selected as one of the 100 Best Sightseeing Spots by attracting tourists with various product development and cultural art performances.

By region, 24 metropolitan areas, 12 Kangwon areas, 10 Chungcheong areas, 25 recreational areas, 17 Jeonju areas and 12 Jeju areas and so on.
Metropolitan area saw the number increased by 6 compared to 2015.

The 100 Korean tourist attractions were selected through online surveys such as tourist awareness, satisfaction, and intention to visit as well as telecom, SNS, navigation big data analysis and tourist growth rate, search volume, and tourism statistics such as professional written and field evaluations.
For more information, please visit the Korean National Tourism Organization's "Every corner of Korea" on  www.visitkorea.or.kr.

Gangnung Coffee Street

Starbucks coin pouch celebrating new year gained sensational popularity in Korea

Starbucks celebrated the New Year with 50,000 limited edition coin purses and it completely sold out in 5days.

Starbucks Korea launched its limited-edition lucky bag concept coin-pouch with a Starbucks logo on Jan 1.
The Starbucks logo is engraved with a zipper in the shape of a circle.
More than 10,000 pieces were sold on the first day at 1,000 Starbucks stores nationwide.
This pouch was sold at 8,800 won(8$) each, with 6 coin-shaped chocolate inside gold, silver artificial leather pouch.

Consumers who bought it started to post to the social network service(SNS) that it is highly utilized for coin purses and earphone cases.

Kim Sun-hong, a food development team partner who developed this product said, "The tin case which was sold with 5 coin chocolate in the past was inconvenient to open and close because it was a steel material so we've made pouch with a soft material with new lucky Bag Concept this year. "

Korea's first Flying 4D Theatre was opend in Seoul

What is it like if you could fly through the sky and experience all sorts of uncharted places in Korea?
Flying 4D theater was opened for the first time in Korea to experience this feeling.

One of audience said during a interview, "As I ride on it, I could feel like i was flying for real while struck by a snowstorm and rain and it was amazing experience."

A 20m dome-shaped vertical screen structure is used to enhance immersion.

In addition, high-quality 6K camera was used for shooting in 19 locations accross South Korea including Jeju's Seongsan Ilchulbong peak and Sorak Ulsan rocks and were shot in 530 cuts for 60 days.

This 4D motion theater was just opend along with French Revolution 2VR, new rollercoaster ride with VR mount at Lotte World in Seoul.

Top 10 most popular smartphone games of 2016 in Korea

What is the most popular smartphone game of 2016 in Korea?
According to App Ape, Mobile Apps Analysis Service, Korea's Top 10 mobile games were selected based on MAU(Monthly Active Users), which means users who run apps at least once a month from January to November 2016.
The list is based on data from Korea's Google Store, and the launch of mega popular 'Lineage 2 Revolution' and 'Lineage: Red Knights' in December were not included since December is not over.

In 2016, NHN Pixel Cube's "Friends Pop" was the most popular game in Korea. 'Friend's Pop' is a 6-way, 3-match puzzle game using cute Cacao Friends IP and is especilly popular among female users.

The second is "Modoo Marble" from Netmarble.
Netmarble which enjoyed the heyday of the games, was able to put five games in the top 10 list of 2016.
With the popularity of Netmarble's just released game,  Lineage 2 Revolution, which ranks first in MAU on Dec 18, is expected to continue.

Third place is 'Anipang 2'. The latest version of the series, 'Anipang 3' has released, but the previous version is still showing popularity.
There are three versions of anipang on the top 10 of the MAU total,'Anipang 2', 'Anipang sachunsung' and  'anipang mahjong',  showing the popularity of anipang series in Korea.

4th place is 'Piano Tile 2'. It is a simple game of knocking on a black and white keyboard.
It is a rhythm action game in which you must press the passing key quickly.
Simple UI and unique gameplay made it popular among all ages and it even surpassed MAU of "Modoo Marvel" in January.

5th place is 'Seven Knights' from Netmarble. It is the action RPG which represents Korea Action RPG along with Gamevil's 'Become a Star Dragon Blaze', and it became the role model of many action RPGs.
The number of users who play games is close to 85% for male players, and especially for young players who are over 60%. Although the MAU has decreased by about 40% compared to January, it continues to maintain steady DQU and Google play rankings.


6th place is 'anipang mahjong' followed by Minecraft, Cookie run, anipang sachunsung and Clash of Clan.

Top 10 best selling smartphones in Korea (November, 2016)

Top 10 most selling smartphones by domestic mobile carrier in the second week of November



1. iphone 7 128GB (SKT)

2. iphone 7 128GB (LG U+)

3. Galaxy S7 32GB (SKT)

4. Galaxy S7 32GB (LG U+)

5. Galaxy S7edge 32GB (SKT)

6. iphone 7 128GB (KT)

7.  Galaxy wide (SKT)

8. Galaxy S7 32GB (KT)

9. Galaxy J5 (LG U+)

10. LG Wine 3G (KT)