SKZ·TWS·EXO·MONSTA X, Front New K-POP Travel Push

The Korea Tourism Organization is teaming up with four of K-POP's biggest labels to bring international fans deeper into South Korea than the usual Seoul itinerary. The agency announced a joint campaign with HYBE, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and Starship Entertainment that runs through late November.

The campaign is called BIAS, short for "Be In Artists' Scenes." The name plays on a familiar term in global K-pop fandom, where a fan's favorite member of a group is known as their "bias." The idea is simple: send fans to the places their favorite artists have been.

At the center of the campaign is a series of regional travel videos rolling out through July 9. Each clip pairs a top K-pop act with a specific Korean city. Stray Kids feature in Busan. TWS take viewers to Gangneung. EXO appear in Suncheon. MONSTA X are set in Gyeongju. The videos are designed to push fan attention beyond the capital and toward regions that often sit outside a first-time visitor's plans.

To turn that attention into actual trips, the Korea Tourism Organization is working with travel platforms including Nol Universe, Creatrip, Klook and KKday. Each platform will run themed product fairs that connect the filming locations in the videos with bookable experiences, tours and activities. The goal is a direct line from a fan watching a video at home to a fan checking into a hotel in Busan or Gyeongju.

The partnership builds on earlier work between the agency and SM Entertainment, which signed a memorandum of understanding in 2024 to collaborate on tourism promotions aimed at overseas fans.

"K-pop fandom has a defining trait of moving along the path their artists take," said Park Seong-hyeok, president of the Korea Tourism Organization. He added that the agency plans to keep developing collaborations that reflect pop culture trends, so that fan interest translates into visits and spending in local regions.

The push reflects a broader shift in how Korea is marketing itself abroad. As K-pop tours, pop-ups and idol-linked spaces become reasons in themselves to book a flight, government tourism strategy is following the artists, not the other way around.