In the 1950s most of Korea’s industrial infrastructure remained in ruins, destroyed by the Korean War. Desperately needing foreign money to fund Korea’s numerous economic projects, the Korean government turned its eyes to tourism and designated the year 1961 as the Visit Korea Year to attract foreign tourists. In that year roughly 10,000 foreigners visited Korea, and the number of foreign tourists has been on the steady rise since then. Since then, thanks to hallyu, the wave of Korean pop culture sweeping the world, and a diversity of other attractions, such as Korean cuisine, traditional arts, and shopping, the number of foreign tourists to Korea exceeded 14 million in year 2014. Now Korea has become a must-see country in the minds of global travelers.
