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The most powerful wave will recede once it has crashed on the beach, and the Korean Wave is no exception. Having flattened most of Asia before it, Korean pop culture is being replaced in the affections of what were mostly TV audiences. Japan, first to fall to an unprecedented craze for Korean soap operas, is also first to recover.
A local travel agency reports that tours for Japanese people offering a chance to meet Korean TV star Kwon Sang-woo sold 1,000 tickets last June. Tickets went on sale three months ahead of the trip and sold out in three days.
But in October, a similar event for Japanese fans of Lee Young-ae, who had earlier wowed them with her role in the soap opera ¡°Daejanggeum (The Jewel in the Palace)¡± only found 200 takers, instead of the 700 the agency had expected.
As of this year, Korean Wave tourism is in deep recession. The reason is twofold, industry insiders say. For one thing, Korean stars and the tours that dog their steps are pricing themselves out of business as the yen falls against the won. For another, Korean soap stars have become all too familiar to Japanese who sighed and fainted, it seems only yesterday, at the bespectacled appearance of Bae Yong-joon in ¡°Winter Sonata.¡±
The figures tell a harsh story: according to the Korean Tourism Organization, the number of Japanese tourists visiting Korea stood at 145,788 this January, the lowest for two years and 100,000 less than the crest of 248,435 in October 2004. Numbers receded to 193,690 in December 2005 and 145,788 in January this year. Monthly figures for tourists from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other Asian countries have also peaked, sinking to 236,142 in January, the lowest since March 2004. In the halcyon days of October 2004, the figure was as high as 345,985.
Travel packages are not keeping up, with costs for star guarantees in some cases more than twice what they were in 2004. The top stars get paid W300 million (US$300,000) -400 million for a couple of hours meeting their fans, up from W100-150 million up until mid-2004. ¡°When the performance fees rise, the financial burden is passed on to tourists,¡± a travel agency staffer says. ¡°Four-day Korean Wave travel products with fan meetings included have been priced at between 160,000-170,000 yen since the end of last year, up from 130,000-140,000 yen.¡±
Another problem is that nothing has ever quite managed to match the stellar success of ¡°Winter Sonata.¡± Dongseo Tour, a local travel agency, shipped over 1,000-1,500 Japanese tourists a month between mid-2004 and mid-2005 by selling ¡°Winter Sonata¡± locations such as Namisum Island and Yongpyeong Resort. That number is down to a mere 50, and the agency says it may stop the tours altogether. ¡°Daejanggeum¡± tours launched last year only attract 100 Japanese or so a month. In short, the well is dry, the staffer says. The KTO says the number of Japanese tourists visiting Namisum Island declined from 15,000 in January 2005 to 4,600 in December.
Japanese TV channels, in turn, have cut the number of Korean soaps in their programming. A report on the prospects for Korean Dramas on Japanese TV published by the Korean Broadcasting Institute says the number of Japanese terrestrial broadcasters who aired Korean soaps declined to 36 in February, from 64 a year ago. Kim Yung-duk, who conducted the research, says the ¡°Winter Sonata¡± craze will not come again.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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