A small village named Glenfinnan in northwestern Scotland has in recent years become a world-renowned tourist destination. A large sign reading "Location Site for Harry Potter" stands at the village entrance. With its dreary atmosphere, nearby Loch Shiel was used as the site for the Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. The village's railway viaduct was used in a Harry Potter movie in which a flying car chases a train. The owner of a nearby shop was attracting customers with meals and souvenirs, promising great photo opportunities when the steam train passes four times a day.

It has been more than 10 years since the first volume of the Harry Potter series was published, and U.K. is still reaping the benefits. VisitBritain, the tourist bureau, has set up a signpost for the famous "Platform Nine and Three Quarters" at King's Cross railway station. It is from this fictitious platform that Harry Potter takes the express train to Hogwarts School. Various locations in Britain, including Gloucester Cathedral, which was used as the hallway of the Hogwarts School, are attracting tourists by publicizing their links to Harry Potter. VisitBritain even helps visitors travel the Potter experience with a map showing many of the Potter locations.

The seventh and final book of the Potter series will be released July 21. The series has been translated into 64 languages, selling 325 million copies around the world. The total sales amounted to more than W3 trillion (US$1=W933). Including the revenue from the four films that have been produced so far, merchandise and related events, the economic tsunami is estimated to be 100 times that, or more than W300 trillion. That's more than the sales of Hyundai Motor for 10 years.

Thanks in part to high wages, Britain's manufacturing base has moved overseas, much of it to Eastern Europe. And yet Britain's economy has been booming for more than 10 years. At first glance it seems a mystery, but it makes sense when you remember Harry Potter. The British economy is running on a virtuous circle, with tourism backed up by financing and logistics. It may be an exaggeration to say that the British economy is booming because of Harry Potter, but it's correct to say that the economy is thriving thanks to Harry Potter-style strategies.

Britain understood before most countries that growth in the 21st century would not be fueled by smokestack industries, but rather by cultural content and its core, tourism.

The British people knew they couldn't draw significant numbers of tourists with their featureless attractions. In recent days, Britain turned a robbery in which 50 million pounds (W90 billion) was stolen into a popular tourist destination. The program includes a guided tour of the crime scenes, including a vault from which the money was taken, a storehouse where a custodian was held hostage, and the safehouse where the suspects were caught.

In places where there was nothing to sell, people created something new. A disused mine in the southwestern region of Cornwall has been turned into a giant botanical experiment called the Eden Project. Like some kind of primeval garden, it's more than just a botanical zone. In spring, the Project hosts "Blue Mania," a hands-on event in which tourists help plant one million flower bulbs. Since its opening in March 2001, more than nine million tourists have visited Project Eden, helping it rank fifth among Britain's tourist attractions. About 500 full-time employees of the park have been recruited from the nearby area, 75 percent of whom were jobless before the Project was founded.

Korea registered US$7 billion in travel account deficit last year. Nowadays, it seems more urgent for the government to encourage Koreans to visit domestic destinations rather than attract foreign tourists. What happened to Jungsang's House (a location used in the TV drama "Winter Sonata"), which was once crowded with tourists from Japan and Southeast Asia? What happened to Jeongdong-jin, a location from the TV drama "The Sandglass", and the locations from the film "Friends"? Nobody seems to know what follow-up measures to pursue.

The tourism industry is limited only by our imaginations. We shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes or lose face. How about developing new destinations for foreign tourists, like a tour of the birth house of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon? Now is the time for Korea, which is clearly an underdeveloped country as far as tourism is concerned, to learn from Harry Potter.

The column was contributed by Choi Hong-sub from The Chosun Ilbo's Business News Division.