President Park Geun-hye (C) learns how to make Korean traditional dessert cakes with Song Joong-ki (L), the actor of the hit drama “Descendants of the Sun,” and Yoon Suk-ja, the chief of the Korean Food Foundation, during the opening ceremony of the “K-Style Hub” in Seoul on April 11, 2016. (Image : Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 11 (Korea Bizwire) - South Korea opened a Korean food information center to showcase Korean cuisine and food culture and promote culinary tourism among foreign travelers, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Monday.
The “K-Style Hub” opened in the previous headquarters of the state-run Korea Tourism Organization in downtown Seoul. The KTO relocated to Wonju, 132 kilometers east of Seoul, last year.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Korea Food Foundation jointly operate the Korean traditional food center from third to fifth floors.
A variety of traditional Korean dishes are on display on the third and fourth floors, while a store on the fifth floor sells red ginseng and fermented foods as well as craftworks by local artisans.
The Korea Food Foundation runs the fourth floor to showcase special Korean cuisines, including North Korean food, as well as an education center that teaches how to make traditional Korean dishes.
During the opening ceremony, President Park Geun-hye and Song Joong-ki, the ambassador of Korean tourism and actor in the popular TV series “Descendants of the Sun,” toured the K-Style hub and attended a traditional desert cooking class at the food promotion center.’
“We will support the Korean food promotion center as a landmark for Korean food industry and culinary tourism to promote Korean food experience at home and abroad,” Agriculture Minister Lee Dong-pil said.
The K-Style hub also operates a tourism information center on the second floor to introduce medical tourism, filming sites of Korean dramas and the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. It also features a virtual reality zone for popular tourism destinations and provides information on inbound tour agencies.
“The K-Style hub was designed to help foreigners have better understanding of Korea, not just introducing famous tourist destinations in the nation,” said Yoon Tae-yong, a senior official at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
(Yonhap)
