Korea’s rural areas attract foreigners with four-themed tour programs

 MIFAFF runs Rural-20 Supporter Program for foreigners staying in Korea from August 11th to November
- First attempt to promote rural areas as tourist attractions to overseas with four-themed tour programs such as 'Experience, Nature, Orient and Well-being 
 
"Do not see rural areas as just places for food production." This is the motto of people working for the Rural-20 Project.

Rural-20 is a project that the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF) has been pushing forward to promote Korea’s rural tourism overseas, taking the momentum of G-20 Summit to be held in Seoul in November.

MIFAFF has already selected and publicized the list of 20 sites in rural areas that boast of beautiful scenery and traditional culture in March. To make these sites more appealing, four-themed tour programs (experience, nature, orient and well-being) has been designed according to the unique characteristics of each site.

In 'Experience Travel', visitors can enjoy various experience programs that are only found in Korea's rural areas while they are able to see well-preserved nature in 'Nature Travel.'

'Orient Travel' provides the opportunity to feel the depth of 5,000 years of history and see antique remains. Through 'Well-being Travel', tourists can find full-relaxation along with healthy Korean food.

The Ministry runs Rural-20 Supporter Program from August 11th to November, when the Summit is scheduled to be held, to provide foreigners staying in Korea a chance to enjoy Korea‘s rural areas based on these tour programs. 
 
MIFAFF is going to operate this program for a total of 2,100 foreigners through active on- and off-line promotion towards Korean language institutes, embassies and others.

More detailed information about application for the program and Rural-20 Tour can be found at the Rural-20 Homepage (http://www.rural20.kr), available in three languages including English, Japanese and Chinese.

For effective operation, the Ministry educated residents in Rural-20 sites about etiquette for foreigners and ran a pilot program for about 200 foreigners in June and July. Aikeremu Aini, a Chinese student at Yonsei Korean Language Institute who participated in the pilot program, said "It was a great opportunity to learn more about Korea's tradition and I hope to have a chance to experience the actual farming in the future." 
 
Furthermore, the Ministry made brochures and videos in three languages (English, Chinese and Japanese) introducing Rural-20 and will distribute them to Korean language institutes, embassies, major tourist information centers and overseas offices of the Korean Tourism Organization. 
 
Rural-20 Project is the first effort at the government level to introduce Korea’s rural areas as tourist attractions to overseas and is expected to greatly contribute to vitalizing Korea’s rural tourism begun in 2002.
 
An official from the Ministry remarked that Rural-20 Project is going to herald a new chapter in Korea’s rural tourism, which has mainly focused on domestic visitors until now. “This project is also going to help boosting the economy of Korea’s rural areas and creating jobs” added the official.

source:Ministry of Food,Agriculture and Fisheries,Korea