Korean government kicks off national food tourism brand

The Korean government launched a national food tourism brand in a bid to systemically promote regional gastro cultures abroad, the Ministry of Culture Sports and Tourism announced in a press release Wednesday.

Logo of Taste Your Korea, a new food tourism brand jointly run by the Culture Ministry and the Korea Tourism Organization [MINISTRY OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM]

The Korean government launched a national food tourism brand in a bid to systemically promote regional gastro cultures abroad, the Ministry of Culture Sports and Tourism announced in a press release Wednesday.

Jointly curated by the Culture Ministry and the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), the brand is dubbed Taste Your Korea and includes 33 foods in three categories: regional dishes, regional ingredients and regional drinks. Food items include Busan's dwaeji gukbap (pork soup over rice); Suwon, Gyeonggi's wang galbi (large marinated ribs); Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang's oyster; Hongseong County, South Chungcheong's clams; Andong, North Gyeongsang's soju; and Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi's makgeolli (rice wine).

A map locating 33 regional food items selected for the government's new food tourism brand Taste Your Korea [MINISTRY OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM]

Taste Your Korea is under the larger umbrella tourism brand Imagine Your Korea, also run by the Culture Ministry and the KTO. Through the new gastro tourism label, the ministry hopes to advance the local food tourism business from one that is focused on promoting and commercializing individual dishes and ingredients to one that creates more proactive and integrated travel content featuring storytelling.

"Through the new food tourism brand and 33 representative food tourism items, we will actively discover and utilize food tourism content that not only promotes the taste and beauty of our food but also their delicious stories," said the Culture Ministry's Director-General of Tourism Industry Policy Bureau Kim Geun-ho through a press release. "We will work to create experiences that satisfy foreign travelers' eyes, ears and mouth."

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]