The “Hallyu” phenomenon: Utilizing tourism destination as product placement in K-POP culture

This article examines the effect of the Korean pop culture phenomenon also known as “Hallyu” on the inbound tourism demand of Korea. “Hallyu” products are exported throughout Asia and have been growing over the past decade. Using a Bayesian autoregressive model, we empirically investigate the product placement effects of “Hallyu” explained by the parasocial theory of previous literature utilizing inbound tourist data and show that “Hallyu” effects are also present in the overall tourism industry of Korea. The study illustrates that product placement can be a powerful marketing strategy in the tourism industry and highlights its importance for policy makers in creating a comprehensive joint plan for the development of long-term tourism.