From Screen to Runway: Netflix Flips the ‘Trip-to-Korea’ Switch

Yonsei University & K-EnterTech Hub host ‘K-Culture Explained,’ mapping the OTT-tourism path that turns ‘viewers’ into ‘visitors’

Viewers’ intent to visit Korea is 72% — twice that of non-viewers. “The screen is not the end but the start of the journey.”

A 105-person survey across five countries, an interactive filming-location map, and a full report unveiled the same day

Related  |  Samseog Ko present ‘EnterTech · co-evolution’ at the New York Consulate General’s ‘Team Korea New York’ forum (June 22, Mon, local time)

■ Academia, public sector and industry convene — presenting the ‘OTT tourism’ conversion structure (watch → search → book → visit) and a system to sustain it

■ ‘Culinary Class Wars’ and ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’ spotlighted as cases where K-content spilled over into flight bookings and local revenue

■ Netflix’s global social infrastructure and personalized recommendations assessed as the engine carrying K-content across borders

■ First release of a 5-country, 105-person survey — 98% first watched on Netflix, visit-decision influence 6.04/7, 78% of location-visitors shared on social media

■ In the roundtable: “In the streaming era, the content capital is Seoul” (Han Jung) — super-fans, K-content docents, fandom’s positive influence, and public ‘honest data’

■ AI-dubbing firm Hudson AI provided real-time Korean-English subtitle translation for foreign students across talks and the discussion

(Seoul, July 1, 2026) ‘OTT tourism’ — in which viewers of K-content move through search and flight booking to visit Korea and spend on the ground — has become a constant of Korean tourism. With inbound arrivals hitting a record 18.94 million in 2025 and a record first quarter of 4.76 million in 2026, K-content has become part of global viewers’ daily viewing routine, so exposure now converts directly into travel demand. K-content viewers’ intent to visit Korea stands at 72%, roughly double that of non-viewers (37%).

Experts gathered at Yonsei University on June 30 to explain this shift to foreign university students. ‘K-Culture Explained,’ co-hosted by Yonsei University (President Yoon Dong-seob)’s School of Communication, Office of International Affairs and Communication Research Institute together with K-EnterTech Hub, was held at Gakdang Hall in Daewoo Hall.

Timed to the opening of Yonsei’s International Summer School, the conference drew about 300 Korean and international students. So that foreign students could follow the program fully, simultaneous interpretation was provided on-site, and Hudson AI — a leading Korean EnterTech and AI-dubbing company — delivered real-time Korean-English subtitle translation, rendering the talks and discussion as live on-screen captions.

Speakers included Prof. Woo Mi-sung (Yonsei, English Literature), Prof. Sang Yoon-mo (Yonsei, Communication), Prof. Seung-Hoon Jeong (California State University, Long Beach), Kim Mi-hoo (Director, Netflix Korea Marketing), Lee Kang-i (Director, Netflix Korea Product), Kweon Osang (Director, Digital Future Institute), Cha Hyuk-jin (Head of Brand Contents Team, Korea Tourism Organization) and Han Jung-hoon (CEO, K-EnterTech Hub). The ‘K-Content Tourism’ five-country survey — commissioned by K-EnterTech Hub from I&I Research — and the filming-location map ‘K-Screen Tour Map (Watch It, Walk It)’ were unveiled for the first time.

“From Viewers to Visitors”: the 7-stage structure of OTT tourism

Presenting on ‘OTT Tourism and Netflix,’ Han Jung-hoon, CEO of K-EnterTech Hub, described the flow that turns viewers into travelers as a seven-stage conversion model — exposure, interest, search, booking, visit, spending and revisit. Viewers who watch a title search for its filming locations, food, cast and background culture; form an intent to visit; book flights and lodging; visit in person; spend on the ground; and return.

Han Jung-hoon, CEO of K-EnterTech Hub, presenting ‘OTT Tourism and Netflix.’ (Photo: Netflix)

Han noted that Korean titles appeared on Netflix’s global non-English Top 10 every single week of 2024, arguing that K-content has moved beyond event-driven hallyu to become part of global viewers’ daily routine. He also cited a correlation of 0.82 between per-capita K-content viewing time by country and intent to visit Korea.

Per-capita monthly K-content viewing time and intent to visit Korea show a strong positive correlation (r=0.82) across countries. (Han Jung-hoon’s presentation / Source: KOFICE·KCTI 2026)

Following the funnel from viewing to revisit, however, reveals two weak links. For every 100 viewers, 85 reach the search stage and 72 form an intent to visit, but the number nearly halves to 38 at booking, then falls through visit (31) and on-site spending (26) to just 11 who become long-term repeat visitors.

[Table 1] Han Jung-hoon — stage-by-stage conversion/drop-off per 100 viewers (two bottlenecks: intent→booking, visit→revisit).

Han identified the intent-to-booking and visit-to-revisit gaps as the two bottlenecks, proposing a multilingual one-stop interface (‘One-Stop K-Tourism Pass’) that books flights and lodging on a single screen, plus a ‘content trail’ that links filming locations into permanent routes with seasonal merchandise and F&B collaborations.

For this loop to work, Han argued, a single piece of content must mesh organically with production (studios), distribution (global streaming), tourism (the tourism organization), air travel (airlines and OTAs), F&B/retail, local governments and central ministries. He captured this as an ‘OTT Tourism Industry Ecosystem’ — a seven-part public-private stakeholder structure centered on OTT content.

‘OTT Tourism Industry Ecosystem’ — seven public and private stakeholders bound around a single piece of content. (Han Jung-hoon’s presentation / K-EnterTech Hub)

Concrete cases followed. ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ lifted flight bookings to Korea by 146% in Spain and 122% in Germany over the four weeks after release, and turned Bukchon Hanok Village (foreign visits +118%), Myeongdong and N Seoul Tower into fixtures of global fandom itineraries. ‘Culinary Class Wars’ raised reservations at featured chefs’ restaurants by 148% within a week of airing, and six months later the foreign-booking share reached 38%. ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’ etched Jeju’s scenery into the global imagination, with an estimated 90 billion KRW economic effect and — in production alone — some 600 on-site crew and 4,000 partner firms mobilized.

This trend is backed by Netflix’s ‘Netflix Effect’ report, released in May. Since 2016 Netflix has invested over $135 billion in content, adding more than $325 billion in value to the global economy, and has filmed in 4,500+ cities and towns across 50+ countries, generating 425,000+ jobs. The report lists ‘content-driven tourism (Going Off the Beaten Path)’ among its ten spillover effects, noting that 72% of Netflix users who watched Korean content intend to visit Korea — the same figure this Seoul survey points to.

Netflix has filmed in 4,500+ cities and towns across 50+ countries. A filming location becomes a destination. (Source: Netflix, ‘Netflix Effect,’ thenetflixeffect.com)

Han cited Squid Game season 3 as the turning point from ‘following after airing’ to ‘designing before airing’: Seoul City, the culture ministry and Netflix jointly installing the ‘Young-hee’ statue at Gwanghwamun and placing Chungju’s traditional liquor ‘Cheongmyeongju’ inside the show signals ‘OTT Tourism 2.0,’ in which tourism assets are designed from the shooting stage. He pointed to New Zealand’s ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ branding tied to Avatar, the UK’s three-way accord among tourism, film agencies and studios running Harry Potter locations as permanent routes, Thailand partnering with global platforms from the White Lotus shoot, and Iceland’s 25–35% production rebates, urging Korea to unify K-content with ‘Visit Korea,’ standardize pre-release collaboration, run major-IP locations as permanent assets, raise tax incentives to global levels and guard against overtourism, as in Dubrovnik. “The screen is not the end but the start of the journey,” Han said.

“From Discovery to Fandom”: Netflix’s marketing and product strategy

Kim Mi-hoo, Director of Netflix Korea Marketing, defined marketing as the work of creating ‘conversation.’ “The single most powerful force, stronger than any advertisement, is word of mouth,” she said — the moment a friend or family member says “Have you seen this? It’s so good” lands harder than any ad. Marketing opens the space for fans to take part, create and spread the story, and helps that conversation travel further once it starts.

Citing the ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’ campaign, Kim described a design that kept fans immersed in the world — teasers and trailers, a press conference and on/offline wedding-photo events before release, then post-launch fan events and behind-the-scenes commentary. Such activity accumulates into global fandom; quoting an internal saying, she noted that “a bigger fandom solves almost every problem.” Because Korean titles launch worldwide at the same moment with local subtitles and dubbing, she added, “fandom has no time zones and no borders.”

As an example of organic spread, the ‘carrot’ meme from ‘Culinary Class Wars’ S2 took off after the social team posted a short prompt — “Everyone, could we get rid of the carrots?” — drawing meme accounts and amplifying the conversation, while fan-made clips of the wedding scene from ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’ spread across TikTok and beyond. As the foundation for this spread, Kim cited Netflix’s roughly 1.4 billion social followers and about 224 billion organic impressions; where that infrastructure meets K-content, she said, a “global super-highway” forms. Noting that the Korea team’s ‘The Manipulated’ (Chamgyoyuk) held No. 1 on the global non-English chart for three weeks, she called it marketing’s greatest appeal that “a story born in Korea now reaches the whole world, bigger and deeper than once imaginable.”

Lee Kang-i, Director of Netflix Korea Product, introduced the ‘discovery experience’ that follows content and marketing, noting that more than 80% of Netflix members worldwide watch Korean content. He described recommendation not as “pushing the most popular title to everyone, but delivering the right title to this particular person right now,” driven by three forces: the creativity and storytelling of Korean content itself, marketing that spreads conversation, and personalized recommendation and viewing experiences.

Lee emphasized subtitles and dubbing that lower language barriers (including Spanish and Portuguese dubs for Latin America) and personalized visuals. For ‘Culinary Class Wars,’ a tense image of Paik Jong-won tasting blindfolded drew better response at home, while images foregrounding food and concept did better abroad — the same title surfaced differently for different people. He also cited ‘The Manipulated’ being recommended to rom-com fans as well as action fans, prompting taste discovery (“turns out I like action, too”), a ‘Book Adaptations’ curation grouping webtoon and web-novel originals, and a mobile vertical video discovery feed already live in the US and coming soon to Korea.

Sustained collaboration with global OTTs — a precondition for durable K-tourism

Kwon Oh-sang, Director of the Digital Future Institute, argued that the public sector must secure ‘intermediate data.’ Infrastructure is needed to track the path from viewing through search, intent, booking, visit, spending and revisit — by title, country and region. Rather than leaning on a single hit, he urged running the entire K-content library as a tourism asset, tying each title’s locations to regions, themes, food and festivals in a continually updated tourism map. The long-term task, he said, is to build a repeatable operating system rather than one-off campaigns, and, through collaboration with global platforms, a structure in which the gains of content diffusion return to Korea’s production ecosystem and local economies.

Cha Hyuk-jin, Head of the Brand Contents Team at the Korea Tourism Organization, framed the Netflix partnership in terms of ‘creating real inbound demand.’ Around campaigns, Korea-related search volume rose and brand awareness and travel preference climbed together, he said; the evolution from Squid Game to the recent ‘Jae-suk Camp’ shows how the partnership has matured. The KTO is reconfiguring filming locations into courses to guide visitors’ itineraries, signing agreements with drama producers to reflect tourism elements from the pre-production stage, and building projects that connect nationwide locations with landmark installations and experience spaces.

K-content fandom and the rise of ‘smart content’

Prof. Sang Yoon-mo (Yonsei, Communication) analyzed how viewers experience ‘flow’ and ‘narrative transportation’ while consuming K-content, feeling as if they move into the story. In a Korea Culture & Tourism Institute survey, ‘contact with hallyu content’ was the top trigger (39.6%) for becoming interested in traveling to Korea. From an early fandom of middle-aged women centered in Asia, K-content fandom has expanded across ages and regions and is evolving into a community that spans emotional healing, solidarity and global networking — beyond mere cultural consumption.

Prof. Seung-Hoon Jeong (CSU Long Beach), presenting on ‘Korean Film and Netflix,’ traced how Netflix has both opposed and absorbed cinema while expanding the cinematic experience. Noting that Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Okja’ was booed at Cannes the year before ‘Roma’ won the Golden Lion in Venice, he argued that Netflix has paradoxically come to realize, within its own platform, the core values cinema long embodied in theaters. Since ‘The Sopranos,’ TV drama has absorbed film aesthetics in digital, large-screen environments; the pandemic accelerated this, making Netflix synonymous with cinematic TV drama; and cases like ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ reaching theaters belatedly on the back of online popularity show Netflix now leading theaters. He listed the aesthetic markers of ‘Netflixization’: slow, expansive long takes and long shots; ‘intensified continuity’ splicing very short cuts; mind-game devices such as time travel and the multiverse; large-scale disaster and SF genres; and unflinching social critique, as with ‘The Manipulated’ earning an adults-only rating.

Prof. Seung-Hoon Jeong (CSU Long Beach) presenting ‘Korean Film and Netflix’; on screen, the zombie landmark ‘Train to Busan.’ (Photo: Netflix)

Jeong argued that Korean content played a decisive role in Netflix’s cinematic success. Grouping ‘The Man Who Lives With the King’ and ‘12.12: The Day’ as an ‘unfinished modern nation-state project,’ he explained a grammar of mainstream Korean film in which extra-legal power confronts the ‘abject’ stripped of agency, noting that most of the 25 ten-million-admission films since 2003 project unrealized longings for a better nation and community onto past or fictional crises. In the zombie lineage of ‘Train to Busan,’ ‘#Alive,’ ‘Kingdom’ and ‘All of Us Are Dead,’ he read the tension between anarchic catastrophe and national rebuilding; in ‘Parasite’ and ‘Squid Game,’ a ‘performative self-contradiction’ in which capital-critical content multiplies as global capital.

In closing, Jeong cited the arc from ‘The Glory’ to ‘The Manipulated’ to argue that Netflix serves as a public sphere lifting private revenge into a question of public justice. Calling such works — which address contested issues three-dimensionally, self-critique included, and pre-empt viewers’ debate as dramatic material — ‘smart content,’ he stressed that even in a post-political age, entertainment platforms can hold the political capacity to spark the awakening and solidarity of global citizens.

[SURVEY] “It doesn’t stop at watching”: a content-to-tourism map drawn by 105 people in five countries

At the conference, the ‘K-Content Tourism’ survey — commissioned by K-EnterTech Hub from I&I Research and covering 105 foreigners across the US, UK, Singapore, Japan and the Philippines — was released as primary data. The full report, “K-Content Tourism Survey — How Netflix Content Influences Foreigners’ Korean Food and Travel Behavior (5-country, 105-respondent survey report),” was unveiled the same day. A ‘content-to-tourism’ path appeared in common across all five markets: foreigners who encounter Korean content on Netflix take an interest in food, visit Korea in person, spend at locations and restaurants, and then broadcast the experience on social media. The quantitative data pointed the same way as the qualitative diagnosis on stage.

Behind this measurable conversion lies a structural shift in hallyu consumption. What was once scattered across broadcast, cable and informal channels has converged on the single platform of Netflix — from entry (first watch) through sustained use to primary viewing — narrowing the distance between ‘watching’ and ‘visiting/spending’ and making the intervening stages observable as one flow. 98% first encountered Korean content on Netflix; current usage is 100% and primary-viewing share is 99%. Heavy viewers of 5+ hours a week reach 70%, a thick exposure base ready to convert into food and travel spending.

This was an online panel survey of 105 foreigners aged 18+ living in or visiting Korea — descriptive, exploratory statistics aimed at trends rather than statistical inference. Because per-country samples are small (15–40), cross-country differences should be read as direction, not conclusion.

[Table 2] The five key findings (Source: I&I Research, K-Content Tourism 5-country survey).

The survey follows a ‘conversion funnel’ — from content consumption to food and travel behavior to advocacy: entry via content, first conversion into food, then real visiting and spending, and finally visits that trigger social spread and revisits.

[Table 3] Four funnel stages — representative metric by stage (total n=105).

① Content consumption — entry via content, channel via Netflix

The biggest trigger for coming to Korea was K-drama/film (85%); adding K-pop (9%) and K-food (6%), 100% of respondents came because of ‘K-content.’ The channel converged on Netflix across entry, use and primary viewing. Viewing runs deep: 70% watch 5+ hours a week and 28% are heavy viewers at 10+ hours.

[Table 4] Netflix share across entry, use and primary viewing (total n=105).

[Chart 1] Streaming services currently used (Q3). Source: I&I Research.

[Chart 2] Most-watched Korean titles on Netflix (Q6).

[Chart 3] Weekly K-content viewing time (Q5).

② Food conversion — the fastest link

The area where viewing converts first and hardest is food. Post-viewing interest in Korean food averaged 5.92/7, with 65% strongly positive and only 1% negative. By country, Japan (6.33), the UK (6.10) and the Philippines (6.07) led — broadly overlapping with markets that watched the food show ‘Culinary Class Wars.’ Attitude turned into action through real trials (kimchi 54%, ramyeon 49%), restaurant visits, home-country consumption and spending.

[Table 5] K-food impact metrics (total n=105).

[Chart 4] Korean foods actually tried after watching (Q9).

Open-ended responses named ‘Culinary Class Wars’-related restaurants frequently, along with specific shops such as ‘Hongik BBQ’ (‘Reply 1988’) and ‘Gohyang kalguksu’ — direct evidence that content is steering people to actual named venues.

③ Travel conversion — content that moves feet

Netflix Korean content’s influence on the decision to visit Korea averaged 6.04/7, with 68% strongly positive — among the highest scores in the survey — and strongest in the Philippines (6.60), UK (6.35) and Japan (6.27). 22% visited actual filming locations; given that 93% stayed under six months, one in five finding a location within a short trip is significant. Named coordinates included Myeongdong, N Seoul Tower (Namsan), Gyeongbokgung, Nami Island, Busan, Gwangjang Market, Suwon and Siheung — drama and film spaces realized as real itineraries. Total travel spend was $1,500+ for 74% and $3,000+ for 31%, with high-spend shares above the US in the UK, Japan, Singapore and the Philippines.

K-EnterTech Hub unveiled the resulting filming-location map ‘K-Screen Tour Map (Watch It, Walk It)’ for the first time that day, and exhibited it in the lobby as regional panels — Gangwon East Coast, Jeju, Seoul, Busan and the Gyeongsang region. The map is available online at all times (https://www.kentertechhub.com/seuteuriming-cwalyeongji-tueo-jido-2/)

[Chart 5] Activities added to the trip after watching (Q15).

④ Advocacy & spread — closing the loop

Converted experiences close with referral (6.14/7), revisit (5.90/7) and sharing (100%) — inputs that create new prospective visitors. 78% of location-visitors and 100% of the whole sample shared their Korea experience online, led by Instagram (65%): an organic diffusion engine that runs at no marketing cost. On the 7-point scale, conversion intensity rises from food interest (5.92) to visit decision (6.04) to referral (6.14) — content working harder as it moves from liking toward action.

[Chart 6] Channels used to share the Korea experience (Q17).

⑤ Five-country comparison — common path, market-specific speed

The conversion pattern is common to all five countries, but its intensity and speed differ. Attitude metrics (interest, visit-decision influence, referral) are uniformly high, while behavior metrics (actual restaurant visit, location visit, high spend) diverge sharply. Given small per-country samples, the figures below should be read as direction.

[Chart 7] Attitude–behavior gap — visit-decision (strong) vs. actual restaurant visit, by country. The survey’s central finding.

[Table 6] Behavior-conversion metrics by country (Source: I&I Research).

[Table 7] Market profiles.

Recommendations — pair content IP with tourism

The commissioning side offered directions to apply the findings: ‘the place in the drama’ tours pairing hit IP with locations and restaurants; a ‘Culinary Class Wars’-linked culinary course; itineraries built on real named coordinates; Instagram-centered UGC design; and home-country K-food marketing (ramyeon, kimchi, soju).

[Table 8] Recommended actions.

“This data shows, consistently across five countries, that K-content doesn’t stop at ‘being watched’: it makes people come, eat, spend and share again. The key task is to deliberately design and amplify this loop so that content, technology and tourism evolve together rather than separately.”

said Han Jung-hoon, CEO of K-EnterTech Hub. A former broadcast journalist at JTBC and JoongAng Ilbo, Han leads media-tech analysis and K-content global-expansion work.

Survey overview

This is exploratory descriptive analysis of a non-probability panel of 105 people (15–40 per country), aimed at grasping trends rather than estimating a population. 93% of respondents stayed under six months and ages cluster at 25–34, strongly reflecting a ‘recently arrived, MZ short-stay/visitor’ profile. A follow-up expanding samples to 200+ per country was recommended.

[Table 9] Survey overview.

[EXPERT VIEW · NEW YORK LINK] “Beyond content export to ‘EnterTech · co-evolution’” — Seoul’s data meets the New York Consulate forum

The direction these Seoul findings point to converges with a discussion held in New York a week earlier. At the first ‘Team Korea New York’ forum, hosted by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in New York (Consul General Kim Sang-ho) on June 22 (Mon, local time), Prof. Samseog Ko — Distinguished Chair Professor at Dongguk University’s College of Advanced Convergence (AI Division) — presented on ‘Next K-Wave: Building a Cultural Powerhouse and the Role of the New York Consulate General,’ while Han Jung-hoon, CEO of K-EnterTech Hub, presented on ‘EnterTech.’ The keywords both offered were ‘EnterTech’ and ‘co-evolution.’

Extending the argument of his book “Next Hallyu” (2025), Ko asked how content and technology — AI included — should combine to make the Korean Wave sustainable. Noting that anti-hallyu sentiment has formed in parts of Southeast Asia (“why should our young people consume only Korean content?”), he flagged the limits of a one-way export strategy that pushes food and beauty on the back of content. He also called Netflix a “double-edged sword”: while Netflix drove K-drama’s spread and YouTube drove K-pop’s, leaning on platforms for distribution can turn dependence into subordination — evidenced, he argued, by a domestic film and production ecosystem in crisis, where only large studios can readily make content.

As an alternative, Ko offered four ‘Next Hallyu’ strategies: (1) design K-pop/drama consumption, food, beauty, Korean-language learning, visits and study abroad as a single ‘lifestyle virtuous cycle’; (2) shift from mere sales to brands carrying values such as fair consumption and ESG; (3) combine content and technology (‘K-AI’) toward becoming a top-three AI power; and (4) pursue ‘co-evolution,’ in which culture and technology, advanced and developing nations, and central and local governments grow together. He described New York as “a melting pot and gateway where 130+ nationalities gather,” an optimal place to attract capital for content production and AI development given its concentration of media companies and finance — and thus a stage where the New York Consulate General’s role matters.

He also laid out concrete strategies for leveraging New York:

(1) a convergent export approach that bundles K-food, beauty and fashion into a single ‘Korean lifestyle’ experience rather than marketing them separately, combining K-content with brands, tech and cities from an ecosystem perspective;

(2) discovering global co-owned IP by moving beyond one-way consumption of K-content to structures that collaborate with New York’s local creators, upgrading the Korean Cultural Center (KOCCA)’s creator-collaboration programs;

(3) leading the next hallyu by using Broadway and Times Square as showcase stages for EnterTech content that fuses Korean storytelling with AI; and

(4) a ‘K-Initiative’-style business scale-up that, beyond the limits of individual firms going it alone, leverages government infrastructure such as the New York Consulate General, the Cultural Center and the business center.

Prof. Ko’s presentation slide, ‘Next Hallyu and a New York Leverage Strategy.’ (Source: Consulate General in New York)

“The sustainable future of the Korean Wave rests on ‘EnterTech’ — the fusion of entertainment and technology — and on ‘co-evolution,’ whose core values are empathy and sharing. The ‘watch → visit → spend → share’ loop confirmed in this survey shows that K-content has moved beyond one-way ‘export’ into a phase in which content, technology, audiences and places evolve together, reshaping one another. The task is to design this not as a winner-takes-all, ‘predatory’ relationship but as an ‘altruistic co-evolution’ that turns zero-sum into plus-sum, where every stakeholder gains. Moving beyond content export to building an ecosystem — and expanding K-culture into a ‘lifestyle public good’ — is what opens the Korean Wave’s next thirty years.”

— Prof. Samseog Ko, Distinguished Chair Professor, Dongguk University · Member of the Presidential Commission on AI Strategy

At the same forum, Han Jung CEO of K-EnterTech Hub, defined ‘EnterTech’ two ways: as technology that raises entertainment’s value by creating new revenue sources that did not exist before — streaming, AI, YouTube — and as a ‘boundary-widening’ capability that lets people experience content through the platform in their hand without traveling to a place. Through Netflix’s decade in Korea and ‘Parasite’ and ‘Squid Game,’ he said, K-content’s standing rose sharply; the task now is how to use platforms like YouTube and Netflix well and how the Korean companies that make up those platforms go global.

Noting that while Spanish-language content ranks first in the US on sheer user numbers, Korean-language content follows — a striking figure — he stressed that not relying solely on global platforms, but collaborating with local platforms through Korea’s own EnterTech capability, is the practice of ‘co-evolution.’ The ‘watch → visit → spend → share’ loop confirmed in Seoul and the ‘EnterTech · co-evolution’ strategy set out in New York point the same way.

Kim Sang-ho, Consul General of the Republic of Korea in New York, who hosted the forum, later shared his reflections via Facebook.

“It was a welcome occasion for our Consulate General, which aspires to be a ‘cultural-hub mission.’ Drawing on the co-evolution philosophy that ‘we are all connected and interdependent,’ we shared the conviction that — to become a top-three AI power and spread the Korean Wave — the future lies in combining content with technology (AI).  In New York, a melting pot and testing ground for the world’s cultural diversity, together with Lee Jung-mi, Director of the Korean Cultural Center New York, and her team, we gained insight and ideas for the direction of a sustainable Korean Wave. ‘What I want to possess without limit is the power of a high culture’ (Baekbeom Kim Koo).”

— Kim Sangho, Consul General of the Republic of Korea in New York (from his Facebook reflections on the ‘Team Korea New York’ forum)

[ROUNDTABLE] “Turn watching into visiting, and visiting into a system” — five experts in discussion

After the talks, a roundtable was held, moderated by Prof. Woo Misung (Yonsei, English Literature), with Jung Han(CEO, K-EnterTech Hub), Profs. Seung-Hoon Jeong and Sang Yoonmo, Director Kewon Osang and Team Head Cha Hyuk-jin as panelists. Topics ranged across the evolution of fandom, raising revisit rates, public data, tourism practice and the power of critical content — all on how to connect watching to real visits and local spending.

Panel (right photo), from left: Jung Han(CEO, K-EnterTech Hub), Prof. Seung-Hoon Jeong (CSU Long Beach), Prof. Sang Yoonmo (Yonsei), Osang kweon (Director, Digital Future Institute), Cha Hyukjin (Head of Brand Contents Team, KTO).

● Prof. Sang Yoon-mo, Yonsei University   |   K-content fandom — networks and positive influence

Q. What operates between watching and traveling that makes people want to go to Korea?

▸ Global audiences actively visiting Seoul landmarks such as the Bukchon Hanok Village seen in ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ is a prime case of K-content consumption becoming real tourism demand. In a KCTI survey, ‘contact with hallyu content’ was the top trigger (39.6%) for interest in traveling to Korea.

▸ During viewing, ‘flow’ and ‘narrative transportation’ occur, so viewers move into the story and experience it as if real — though this is also the compound result of policy support and hallyu diffusion.

Q. How does the global ‘network’ of K-content fans differ from past audiences?

▸ Early fandom centered on broadcast dramas like ‘What Is Love’ and ‘Winter Sonata,’ led by women in Greater China and Japan, where cultural proximity and ‘cultural discount’ applied to a degree. With OTT and economic growth, fandom expanded worldwide and diversified beyond those theories.

▸ Today’s fandom goes beyond fan activity to organized voices and collective action on social issues — even spreading positive influence, as with donations to Amazon-forest protection and a childhood-cancer foundation.

▸ Rather than hiding the old ‘Korea discount,’ confronting social conflict, inequality and the shadows of compressed growth head-on in content has turned weaknesses into assets for deeper storytelling — a view also raised in the discussion.

● Jung Han, CEO, K-EnterTech Hub   |   OTT tourism — super-fans, docents, and the ‘content capital, Seoul’

Q. Intent to visit is 72%, but the final revisit rate is only 11%. How can that gap be closed?

▸ Tourism, like any on-site visit, presupposes fandom. As with the ‘superfan’ concept Universal Music raised last year, the starting point is to draw in first those who consume a title in five or more ways.

▸ The key is to offer what can only be felt on-site. A location isn’t just to be seen; a person explaining the scene, plus a separate message, greatly raises satisfaction — hence a ‘K-content docent program,’ like an LA studio tour where former practitioners or writers narrate specific scenes and the industry behind them.

▸ Since Netflix already positions K-content as premium, offering information and experiences available only in Korea turns search into visit, and visit into revisit.

Q. How will you develop the lobby ‘Netflix K-Tour Map’ booth, and what do you propose to universities?

“If the content capital of the studio era was Hollywood, the content capital of the streaming era is Seoul.”

▸ That requires information. LA has an interactive map of studio locations that reveals the region’s industrial structure; as AI and metadata grow richer, such efforts become possible. The ‘Netflix K-Tour Map’ unveiled today will grow into a continually updated platform, expanding 33 coordinates into a multilingual interactive map.

▸ Combining Netflix viewing data with visit data yields information meaningful for individuals and industry alike. Working with universities and students can build comprehensive data affecting K-content, tourism and K-culture. Today’s 100-person survey can scale to 1,000 and 10,000 per term; an industry-academia course on the ‘K-content real economy’ and establishing ‘K-Culture Explained’ as an annual event were also proposed.

● Osang Kweon Director, Digital Future Institute   |   Digital platforms — data, durability, collaboration

Q. To activate content tourism via OTT, what must the public sector secure first?

▸ Data means not only gathering material but the new data derived from using it. One must grasp where OTT viewers watch what, and what they connect it to, and convert that into outcomes. Even with public-data portals and APIs, the needed data is often missing, so it must be designed and collected from the user’s side, not the supplier’s.

▸ Two years ago an intern from Denmark, with little overseas experience beyond neighboring countries, chose Korea purely out of love for K-drama and K-pop and traveled for six months. Such seemingly individual cases, gathered as ‘honest data,’ enable far more precise approaches; running such programs to secure very concrete data first is effective for the public sector.

Q. When a hit suddenly lands, demand spikes. How should we prepare?

▸ Rather than complacently assuming crowds will come on one hit, plan ahead. As Japan has prepared for nearly 20 years toward its goals, build an industrial base that lasts 30 years — so that even without one title’s mega-success, another can succeed.

Q. As global platforms grow dominant, some worry Korea’s content industry loses self-reliance.

▸ Content cannot exist without platforms, and today’s K-content success owes much to the risk-taking global platforms absorbed. It is neither ‘we can’t stand alone’ nor ‘the platform is the only answer.’ The answer is a collaborative ecosystem that keeps making good content, supplies sustainable capital to creators, and lets platforms grow too — sharing what should be shared.

● Cha Hyuk-jin, Head of Brand Contents Team, Korea Tourism Organization   |   Tourism practice — public–platform collaboration and location routing

Q. How does the KTO assess the Netflix partnership that runs from Squid Game onward?

▸ When Netflix shows Korea globally through content, the KTO connects it to real visit experiences. During last year’s campaign, Korea-related content and travel interest rose together, and gains in awareness and preference confirmed it became a catalyst for actual tourism, beyond mere promotion.

Q. Hits concentrate visitors at specific spots like N Seoul Tower. How to spread this to the regions?

▸ Regional tourism doesn’t work on ‘there’s a good location’ alone. With 80%+ of visitors concentrated in the capital area, entry, movement, stay, experience, dining and shopping must connect organically — designing regional-airport entry, stay-type products, mobility and experiences to build a region-centered inbound virtuous cycle.

Q. To connect OTT viewing to real visits, how do you turn locations into itineraries, and what collaboration is needed?

▸ We introduce locations via web pages and social channels, linking them into visitable routes, and work with local governments to tie location-centered regional tourism to camping and experiences. Recently we signed drama agreements to reflect tourism elements from the pre-production stage, and are co-developing IT-linked experiential content and nationwide location-based installations, experience spaces and travel courses with experts.

● Prof. Seung-Hoon Jeong, CSU Long Beach   |   Audience Q&A — critical content and a global-citizen sensibility

Q. Why do people learn Korean and want to visit Korea even after content that portrays Korea critically or heavily?

▸ People take not only entertainment from content but also thought about social justice, ethics, values and lifestyles — placing themselves within a broader global-citizen sensibility. They then actively incorporate the values and ways of life they wish to embrace, and choose to visit the places they want to see.

▸ This connects to the earlier ‘smart content’ discussion: when Netflix handles contested issues three-dimensionally, self-critique included, an entertainment platform can become a public sphere that draws out the awakening and solidarity of global citizens even in a post-political age.

Technology partner  Hudson AI — a leading Korean EnterTech and AI-dubbing company; provided on-site real-time Korean-English subtitle translation

Contact  Han Jung-hoon, CEO, K-EnterTech Hub

T. +82-10-3686-8722  |  E. existen75@kentertechhub.com

# # #

[REFERENCE] Key indicators of K-content spillover

Main sources · Korea Immigration Service (Ministry of Justice); Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Korea Tourism Organization (KTO); Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE); Netflix Effect Report (May 2026); OAG; Motion Picture Association.

· 2025 inbound arrivals hit a record 18.94 million (108.2% of 2019); Q1 2026 reached a record 4.76 million (+23% YoY).

· K-content viewers’ intent to visit Korea is 72%, about double non-viewers’ (37%). Correlation between per-capita viewing time and visit intent = 0.82.

· Netflix’s 10-year cumulative investment ≈ $135bn → value added ≈ $325bn (2.4×), 425,000 jobs, filmed in 4,500+ cities and towns across 50+ countries. $2.41 value added per $1 invested, 42% above the global streaming average ($1.7). (Netflix, ‘Netflix Effect,’ thenetflixeffect.com/going-off-the-beaten-path)

· The top trigger for interest in traveling to Korea is ‘contact with hallyu content’ (39.6%). 91% of Koreans say rising K-content popularity improves the national image.

· After ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ flight bookings to Korea rose +146% (Spain) and +122% (Germany). Cumulative viewing of 500 million hours — No. 1 in Netflix history.

· ‘Culinary Class Wars’ lifted featured chefs’ restaurant reservations +148% within a week; the foreign-booking share reached 38% six months on. S1 pop-up drew ~450,000 applicants for 150 seats; Choi Hyun-seok’s ‘Choidot’ sales +300%; S2 chef Kim Sung-woon’s ‘Table for Four’ bookings tripled.

· ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’ contributed ≈ 90bn KRW to the Korean economy, mobilizing ~600 on-site crew and 4,000 partner firms. Jeju visitors reached 1.74m in Jan–Sep 2025 (+17.5% YoY).

· Squid Game’s white Vans slip-ons surged ~8,000% after release; the green tracksuit topped Halloween-costume searches two years running.

· K-food exports reached $8.4bn in Jan–Sep 2025 (ramyeon $1.58bn, +24.5%). 2024 total hallyu exports were $15.18bn (~20.9tn KRW).

· 53% of global travelers grew more interested in screen tourism over the past year, and 81% of Gen Z plan trips around screen content (Hotels.com ‘Unpack ’26’).

※ Survey figures follow the I&I Research ‘K-Content Tourism’ report; full frequency tables are provided separately. As exploratory descriptive analysis, results are best read for the relative strength of stage-to-stage conversion and cross-market patterns rather than the absolute level of individual figures.