Abstract
Pop-culture tourism has continuously grown its market among those who are fanatic of pop-culture, and destination marketers have noticed pop-culture as an effective marketing tool to attract more visitors. Pop-culture has been dominant by the US, but interestingly, a recent phenomenon sees a contra-cultural flow. This paper explores contraflow pop-culture tourism and guides the reader to how to understand this new tourism niche. Reviewing the case of transnational fandom of South Korean pop-culture, so called “Korean Wave” or “Hallyu” and its impact on inbound tourism, this paper suggests digital mediation as a key driver of contraflow pop-culture and transnational fandom, pop-culture as a vehicle for change destination image, and pop-culture tourism as a driving force of creative economy.
Keywords
Pop-culture tourism, Contracultural flow, Transnational fandom, Korean Wave, Hallyu, Special interest tourism
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Hur, JungYun "Christine" and Kim, Tony
(2020)
"Understanding Contraflow Pop-Culture Tourism: The Case of Transnational Fandom of South Korean Pop-Culture and the “Hallyu” Tourism,"
Journal of Tourism Insights:
Vol. 10:
Iss.
1, Article 4.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.9707/2328-0824.1101
Available at:
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/jti/vol10/iss1/4
Included in
Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration Commons, Tourism and Travel Commons