CreatripTeam

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), together with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, staged a special travel event in central Seoul inspired by the Netflix hit Squid Game. On the K-Game Day held at Gwanghwamun, 82 foreigners selected from 33 countries participated as “Contestant 82,” wearing player outfits and guided by Pink Guards (the show’s masked enforcers). Teams completed missions across Seoul — including Hacker Ground and the Han River — and enjoyed K-culture activities like traditional multi-course Korean meals (hanjeongsik), making Han River ramen, K-pop dance sessions, and a traditional game called ttakji chigi (paper tile flipping). The program was developed from KTO’s viral global ad “Escape to Korea–BETTER RUN,” part of the ‘Imagine Your Korea’ campaign that attracted over 4,000 applicants and has helped convert interest from popular Korean media into actual tourism. KTO plans to continue leveraging Korean pop culture and its ads to attract international visitors; the campaign’s videos have accumulated over 370 million views so far.