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North Korea. The name is an of itself certainly brings terrible things to mind: poverty, human rights abuses, Kim Jong-un, executions, state-censored everything, and…tourism? Currently the isolated country only receives about 100,000 tourists a year and most of those come from its neighboring country and only friend, China. However it now seems as though the North Korean government is starting to make efforts to bring more tourists to visit, especially those from Western countries. With plans to increase tourism tenfold by 2017 and t0 get around 2 million in 2020, the government is setting itself a high bar, especially for a country that has made it’s hatred of outsiders very well known.
This new tourism drive has officially been sanctioned by North Korean Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un. One of the biggest parts of the tourism plan is to show the country as a destination for both beaches and surfing, hoping to convince millennials with a sense of adventure to make North Korea their next destination. This news is coming quickly on the heels of North Korea lifting its four month international travel ban that it had imposed after the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. What does North Korea hope to get out of turning itself into the next big tourist destination? Two very obvious things: money and a challenge to combat the stereotypes of the country that are currently floating around the world.
According to the Telegraph, Kim Jong-un has recognized the potential for profit and investment that tourism brings with it and so he has put an emphasis on opening country to Westerners and outsiders, even though suspicion towards Western (especially the US) governments still exist. Along with promoting opportunities for beach lounging and surfing, the country is also pushing ski packages for its mountainous area, showing that it wants to develop multiple parts of the country. While many governments (like the British) haven’t forbid their citizens from traveling to this new exotic locale, they are reminding people that conditions on the peninsula can change in a heart-beat; let us not forget that North and South Korea are still technically at war and only a ceasefire has been signed.
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