By Yoon Seungjin

Videos = Official YouTube account of Korea Tourism Organization

Five short videos promoting the nation's leading tourist destinations and regional culture have surpassed 200 million views within a month of their release.

Released on Oct. 24 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), the clips were viewed an estimated 221.37 million times as of Nov. 24 at 9:30 a.m. 

Of the five, "What If Vincent Van Gogh Visited Korea" had the most views with 59.01 million. The video utilizes generative artificial intelligence (AI) to highlight leading tourist destinations using the styles of 11 world-renowned painters like Van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Gustav Klimt.

Generative AI was trained over 80,000 times for each painting and used more than 1,600 photos of Korea to create a natural and top-quality video.

The other videos feature world-famous domestic content like "Live Squid Game," which is about daily life as a fisherman catching squid, a specialty of Ulleungdo Island in Ulleung-gun County, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province; "Queendom: Korean Archery," which shows an archer evading pursuers at Suwon Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do Province; and "Guardian's Fireworks," which introduces the folk fireworks game Haman Nakhwa Nori in Haman-gun County, Gyeongsangnam-do Province.

Finally, "Korea Never Forgets" recounts the heartwarming story of Alex and Andrea Campagna, an American couple invited to visit Korea by the KTO in appreciation of their help last year for Korean tourists stranded in a snowstorm in Buffalo, New York. 

All five videos are available for viewing on the KTO's official YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@imagineyourkorea).

scf2979@korea.kr