'Rice Flower Fresh Makgeolli Kit' Wins 2023 Korea Excellent Tourism Souvenir Presidential Award

New Special Award Established and Additional Honorable Mentions... Total of 30 Works Selected
2023 Korea Tourism Souvenir Fair at DDP, November 24-25

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced the final 30 award-winning entries of the '2023 Korea Tourism Contest (Souvenir Category)' on the 6th, in collaboration with the Korea Tourism Organization.

'Rice Flower Fresh Makgeolli Kit' awarded the Presidential Prize in the 2023 Korea Tourism Contest (Souvenir Category)
[Photo by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism]

The Presidential Award went to the 'Rice Flower Fresh Makgeolli Kit,' which allows users to make traditional Korean liquor themselves. It was highly praised for enabling an experience of K-traditional culture through traditional liquor and for its portability, allowing it to be brought on board an airplane.

In the newly established premium category, the selected works included ▲'Golden Apple,' a brassware bowl shaped like an apple made using handcrafted techniques from Geochang brassware ▲'Sobyuljji Glass Collection,' a modern reinterpretation of traditional pottery techniques ▲'Olim Speaker,' an eco-friendly wooden speaker made without electricity, combining the sound chamber principle of the gayageum and the shape of the Hunminjeongeum letters.

The 'Korean-style Candle Warmer Horonggak,' which reinterprets Western candle culture in a Korean style by combining it with hanok architecture, received the Prime Minister's Award. The 'Metal 3D Magnet,' reflecting regional characteristics, and the 'Korean Singing Bowl,' which incorporates healing trends such as meditation and yoga into tourism souvenirs, received the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award and the Korea Tourism Organization President's Award, respectively.

'Korean-style Candle Warmer Horong' awarded the Prime Minister's Award in the 2023 Korea Tourism Contest (Souvenir Category)
Photo by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will support the award-winning works through one-on-one expert consulting, collaboration with private companies, crowdfunding, and opportunities to enter domestic and international online and offline distribution channels.

As part of this, the '2023 Korea Tourism Souvenir Expo' will be held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul from November 24 to 25. Along with the contest awards ceremony, outstanding and famous tourism souvenirs from past contests and from across the country will be exhibited and sold.

Since its inception in 1998, the Korea Tourism Contest (Souvenir Category) has discovered over 2,000 excellent and attractive souvenirs. This year, a special premium product award (3 items) was newly established, and 13 additional honorable mentions were selected, totaling 30 entries.

Park Jong-taek, Director of Tourism Policy at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, stated, “We will support the development of K-tourism souvenirs that combine Korea’s attractive K-culture and regional characteristics into diverse tourism products, contributing to the demand for inbound tourism and the revitalization of local economies.”