Chinese MZ Generation Experiences Korean Tourism through Metaverse

The 'Korean Dance Room' featured in the popular Chinese mobile rhythm dance game 'Audition'. (Photo by Korea Tourism Organization)

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 30th that it will promote the "Audition Project," a metaverse inbound tourism marketing campaign using the popular Chinese mobile rhythm dance game "Audition," targeting the Chinese MZ generation (Millennials and Generation Z), who are expected to become the main consumer group for inbound tourism after COVID-19.

"Audition" is a popular game where users create avatars expressing their individuality and enjoy rhythm dancing in a virtual space. It has accumulated 550 million downloads and 50 million active users in China. The main user base is people in their teens and twenties who are familiar with mobile devices. The Korea Tourism Organization's Guangzhou office judged that Audition is the optimal platform for metaverse marketing targeting the MZ generation and planned this project in collaboration with NetEase (Wangyi, ?易), a leading Chinese IT company responsible for publishing Audition in the Greater China region.

The "Audition Project" involves creating a virtual Korean travel experience space within the game and promoting Korean tourism in connection with it. On the 26th, the virtual space "Korea Dance Room," set against the backdrop of COEX, was unveiled within Audition. Users can enjoy the game with the virtual COEX as the background while simultaneously viewing various Korean tourist destinations such as Gamcheon Culture Village, Jeongdongjin, and Jeju Island on the virtual COEX's electronic billboard. Moreover, users can decorate their avatars using Korean fashion items released temporarily and enjoy the game to K-pop music, indirectly experiencing Korean travel.

Additionally, to increase interest in China for this project, the Korea Dance Room opening commemorative Audition "K-pop Dance Contest" will be held from September 17 to October 8. The contest will be broadcast live online nationwide across China. Furthermore, the popular K-pop girl group "Oh My Girl" has been selected as the project ambassador, and various promotional activities such as releasing avatar fashion items based on their stage costumes and producing promotional videos are underway.

Besides this, a Hallyu fashion show competition using game avatars has been ongoing on NetEase's WeChat mini-program since the 27th and will continue until October 10. In the future, through collaboration with domestic and international companies such as CheongKwanJang and Hyundai Department Store Duty Free, Korean-related game items will be released to allow users to experience Korea in various ways through the game.

Kim Yongjae, head of the Northeast Asia team at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, "Through this project, we expect to increase the interest of the Chinese MZ generation in Korea by having users share their avatars in virtual Korea on social networking services (SNS). We plan to actively promote various inbound tourism marketing campaigns using global metaverse platforms to satisfy interest and hope for Korean travel in the virtual world and to secure inbound tourism demand early."