Gastrodiplomacy and tourism are related in that the charm of a country’s food is highlighted through the promotional plans and campaigns toward foreigners allowing them to try, appreciate, understand, and build relations and memories with the food. This then motivates them to travel to the food’s country of origin. Suntikul (2017) further enlightened the concept of why gastrodiplomacy could spur the growth of a country’s tourism by stating that ‘gastrodiplomacy campaigns [diplomacy] contribute to the establishment and cuisine quality control of ethnic restaurants abroad [food], encouraging positive associations among patrons [diplomacy], which motivate travel to the country [tourism], where tourists patronize restaurants and other culinary sites
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[food], at which they gain a deeper knowledge and engagement with the culture [diplomacy], spurring repeat visits to ethnic restaurants abroad [food] and the nation itself [tourism], contributing to Nye’s third dimension of public diplomacy, “developing relations in the long term” [diplomacy]’.
In regard to tourism in South Korea, the World Economic Forum’s ‘Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report’ in 2011 placed South Korea 32nd among 139 countries (Choi, 2012). This ranking is considered to be low on the list. One major factor in South Korea’s low profile in the international community was the low rate of consideration to select South Korea as a tourist destination due to its lack of tourist attractions (Schmuck, 2011). This has been a major concern in the branding plan, and its improvement has been exerted as one of the major goals of GHC.
Similar to other countries such as Peru, Taiwan, and Thailand, the increased popularity of national cuisine has proven to be beneficial in tourism. In the case of South Korea, the impact showed a growth in the number of visitor arrivals from 13.4%
(7,817,533 visitors) in 2009 to 16.6% (14,201,516 visitors) in 2014. 11
Although achievements cannot be totally associated with the impact of GHC, the promotional plans had a role in the gains. The growing popularity of Hansik attracts people from outside South Korea to try the taste of Hansik at Korean restaurants in their home countries or by directly visiting South Korea for a genuine food experience . The International Visitor Survey by Korean Culture and Tourism Institute showed that in 2008, food (41.5%) was the second-largest consideration of tourists visiting South Korea after shopping (44.4%). In addition, according to the International Visitor Survey 2017, the percentage is gradually increasing each year as food retains the second position with 42.8% in 2015 and increasing to 44.5% in 2017 (see Figure 13).
11Data retrieved from Visitor Arrivals, Korean Departures, Int'l Tourism Receipts & Expenditures by
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Figure 13. Considerations for deciding to visit Korea Source: The Korea Culture and Tourism Institute
As mentioned before, no global standard measures the popularity of national cuisines. However, the success story in some key areas of South Korea has enlightened the concept of gastrodiplomacy as it correlates with the practice of fostering a country’s cultural influence abroad, making contributions to enhancing national brands, and other related sectors. In the case of South Korea, this is demonstrated by the awareness toward Hansik that is dynamic yet fruitful, the rate of satisfaction toward Hansik among foreign publics that is increasing gradually, the NBI ranking that has moved upwards slowly, the number of overseas Korean restaurants that have increased, the tourism sector that has developed to some extent, and more engagements with international partners have been established.
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Chapter 5: Conclusion
This research has explored gastrodiplomacy through the global promotion of a country’s national cuisine by using the case of South Korea. It particularly assesses South Korea’s gastrodiplomacy institutions, goals, tools, actors, and strategies employed to implement gastrodiplomacy by linking it to South Korea’s ability to spread cultural influence. Through the analysis, this thesis answers the questions: how does South Korea conduct gastrodiplomacy through the promotion of Hansik to the global community, and what are the impacts of South Korea’s success in gastrodiplomacy for the country?
This thesis found that South Korea has employed at least five major strategies in implementing the promotional projects. First, embedding a culinary identity by highlighting culinary characteristics. The characteristics refer to healthy and tasty Hansik, the food that carries balance and harmony of nature. Such a message has proved to be appealing to the global food trends as interest toward healthy food trends such as
‘flexitarianism’ is growing and thus contributing to the growing popularity of Hansik abroad. Second, expanding overseas restaurant chains and markets. Third, seeking engagements with international partners to develop food talents. Fourth, the utilization of events inside and outside the country. These strategies are imperative in expanding the zones of culinary contact abroad to reach locals. Along with that, the plans have proven to increase the country’s economic investments in the food industries sector as well as in tourism. Fifth,building relationships with media. Such a strategy has proven to be useful to exposing leader opinions about the food.
The characteristic of South Korean gastrodiplomacy is the utilization of Hallyu contents. K-Wave is an opportunity for South Korea’s gastrodiplomacy to form engagements. Korean TV dramas and shows as well as celebrities are some of the prevalent contents of Korean Wave that embed the visualization of Hansik. As such, foreigners knowing Korean food from such content is becoming common. Mukbang, the eat-broadcast content on internet media, has also drawn recognition from people as well as the South Korean government. Despite the fact that Mukbang also emerge some bad
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effect on South Korea’s image, such content is seen to be impactful in introducing Hansik, thus raising the awareness toward it.
From all of those strategies, it is indicative of how reaching the target audience through direct and indirect engagements is the basic core of what shapes strategies and efforts in implementing South Korean gastrodiplomacy. It is also the characteristic of South Korean gastrodiplomacy if we compare to other countries. For instance, Peru’s method is mainly using online resources such as websites filled with content like movies, news, and entertainment related to Peruvian cuisine, to promote their food to international community. Thai food and Japanese food have focused on spreading their food products globally through the efforts of maintaining food talents and quality as well as expand the number of overseas restaurants. Indeed, South Korea has been doing the same. However, the fact that Thailand’s Tom Yam and Pad Thai and Japanese Sushi have been already gaining recognition way far before Hansik, makes South Korea needs to be more active in seeking more engagements.
As such, this thesis concludes that South Korea has implemented gastrodiplomacy through its food globalization project, the Global Hansik Campaign. This statement is derived from the analysis made based on the association of such activities to the role of gastrodiplomacy: fostering cultural influence. The evaluation on South Korean gastrodiplomacy in fostering cultural influence can be seen in some key areas.
international awareness of Korean food is increasing per year, followed by the rise of foreign people’s satisfaction with Korean food. Country’s image is enhanced looking at the rank of National Brand Index (NBI) that has moved upward. The number of overseas Korean restaurants and international cooperation in the food industry have increased per year. Gastrodiplomacy has spurred a growth in the tourism sector as food has become a major consideration for visiting South Korea since 2013.
However, South Korean gastrodiplomacy is not without challenges. There have been arguments and critiques over the promotional and branding plans. The initiatives were considered to be too ambitious and demanding a high result in a short period. In addition, political and corruption issues within the country has also made people lose
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faith in the project’s goals. Confusion in distinguishing between North and South Korea as well as distinguishing South Korean food with other countries similar food products such as from China, Japan, and Taiwan, are also a challenge in developing South Korean food brands.
At last, this thesis concludes the findings through theoretical analysis, however, some limitations should be noted. First, this study uses only one country as a case;
although it has the same concepts and goals at a basic level, the strategy of gastrodiplomacy in one country might differ with that of another country, for example, South Korea’s utilization of Hallyu and Mukbang. Furthermore, this thesis studies only the current situation of gastrodiplomacy, which is gastrodiplomacy of South Korea from 2009 until 2019, and the economic income of South Korea depend on many factors.
Therefore, the achievements explored in this thesis can not be applied to measure South Korea’s development as a whole. Nonetheless, this thesis can be a useful resource for enriching knowledge in gastrodiplomacy based on the concept and examples.
Second, this thesis only conducted an in-depth interview, and the data are all secondary data from government websites and scholarly books. Because gastrodiplomacy is also a relatively new development in diplomacy, in particular, with the case of South Korea, the data published by the media are also useful for the analysis. The KFPI is mainly associated with its reports and news to locals respective media such as The Korean Herald, The Korea Times, Korea JoongAng Daily, and Korea.net, the results from which have proven to help validate the findings of this research. For future research, continuing research on the same topic by conducting a survey on foreign public perception toward a country after experiencing its food culture would be useful.
This study admits some limitations in providing more credible conclusions. This research rather presents knowledge and information to invite future readers to discuss the conclusions obtained and the related concepts.
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