Tourism Organization to Launch 'My Real Gap Year' Travel Program Next Month to Help You Find Yourself

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 31st that it will launch season 5 of the program 'My Real Gap Year,' which provides stay-type travel opportunities for young people and aims to raise awareness of domestic travel, starting next month.

My Real Gap Year is a project first launched in 2018 that offers young people the chance to reflect on their lives through domestic travel while deeply exploring local regions.

This season 5 recruitment is divided into three categories: Workation, Simple Rural Diary, and Carbon Neutral Travel. A total of five participants?two in the Workation category, two in the Simple Rural Diary category, and one in the Carbon Neutral Travel category?were finally selected from a competition ratio of 15 to 1. They will promote the appeal of domestic travel from the perspective of young people by planning their own travel itineraries and traveling according to the purpose between September and November, while completing missions to create their own travel content.

During the travel period, participants will practice a waste-free lifestyle and experience activities that care for body and mind, such as meditation at travel destinations, producing special domestic travel content in formats like essays and vlogs. The content created by the participants will be available later on the Korea Tourism Organization’s ‘Korea All Over’ blog and Facebook page.

Meanwhile, on the 27th, the organization held an online orientation for participants, providing safety travel guidelines including COVID-19 prevention measures to ensure safe travel and reporting during the activity period. Additionally, to strengthen content creation capabilities, training on content planning and writing, as well as photography and editing techniques, was conducted.

Kang Jongsun, head of the Domestic Digital Marketing Team at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, “Stay-type tourism is gaining more attention recently as it can provide transformative tourism experiences such as self-reflection, self-development, and nature-friendliness,” adding, “Through My Real Gap Year, our goal is for young people who are going through difficult times due to COVID-19 and burnout to find turning points in their lives through travel and to revisit precious domestic tourism resources.”