Korea Tourism Goes Gangnam!

with Helen Hewetson

The Korean Tourism Organization recently transformed a traditional Korean restaurant into a Gangnam-style disco for their “Inspiring Korea Night”. The YTO-based team, including KNTO’s director, NJ Park and Marketing Manager, Randy Snape, wanted to provide a different experience than the norm for their Industry Appreciation evening... and they succeeded.

After a delicious traditional feast, the otherwise untraditional celebration featured singing, dancing, very short presentations and lots and lots of ginseng – all in an effort to say thank you to the Canadian travel industry for helping Korea reach the impressive milestone of 10 million tourist arrivals in a single year.

The food at Richmond Hill’s Bulgogi Brothers Restaurant was, as Randy described, “a real taste of Korea”, and included favourites of mine such as delicious japchae noodles, tender beef short ribs, tasty tofu steaks, salmon maki rolls, and fried dumplings. I will readily admit to overindulging a little.

Another Korean tradition, the alcoholic rice-based drink called soju, was on the table for us to enjoy. Most of us hadn’t tried it before but we all liked the mild taste, which is similar to vodka. Plenty of beer was also offered as well as a large box of individually packaged ginseng shots – not only for improved health but also for enhanced virility – so, we collectively decided to take the samples home rather than trying them on the spot.

After dinner, the crowd was wowed by a top-notch performance from the professional singer Seohoo (whose surprisingly broad repertoire included Paul Anka’s “My Way”), followed by a K-pop dance demonstration - and then, the highlight – performer Kevin Kim provided a gangnam-style dance lesson for the uninitiated.

Although we were all encouraged to participate, a few of us were more talented than others. As I slinked to the back of the room to take pictures, I found Randy Snape happily watching the proceedings because, he said, “I don’t dance, and I don’t sing. I don’t mind giving a speech to 500 people, but that’s where I draw the line.” No matter – everyone was having far too much fun to notice.

Following the entertaining dance number was one more Korean tradition: the lucky draw – a seemingly endless pile of wonderful prizes, ranging from gorgeous jewellery boxes to elaborately decorated hand mirrors and ginseng gift packs topped off by the grand prize: a pair of tickets to see the Seattle Seahawks vs. the Buffalo Bills at the Rogers Centre this weekend.

The evening was a resounding success – feeling full, appreciated and inspired, we all hurried home to try out our ginseng shots.