Barcelona y el turismo coreano. Un análisis a través de los medios de comunicación coreanos

The Spanish Tourism Office pointed out in 2012 that between 40,000 and 50,000 South Koreans had traveled to Spain. This figure, validated by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reflects that in nine years the contribution of Korean tourism to Spain has almost multiplied for twenty. It should be noted that the latest Casa Asia report (2017) details that Catalonia has absorbed a good part of these arrivals, ahead of Madrid and Andalusia. This trend justifies the need to analyze and expand studies on Korean tourists in order to propose tourism management strategies for Barcelona, especially focused on South Korea. In fact, this work aims in the first place, to stimulate studies in Barcelona to acquire more knowledge about South Korean tourists. According to Magí Castelltort, director of the Spanish Tourism Office: “South Korea has become the third most important source market from Asia". Second, the image that Koreans build of a destination significantly influences their decision-making and behavior. In the case of South Korea, it follows that one of the reasons for Barcelona's popularity is its presence in the media. To demonstrate this, this work has analyzed the influence of the media on future Korean tourists and their way of perceiving Barcelona To address the subject of this research, a brief description of the methodology used in this thesis is made, establishing its scope and indicating the type of information sources used. Likewise, the aspects that justify the importance of this study for the scientific community are presented, highlighting the optimal results in the determination of the objectives through the image of a tourist destination L'Oficina Espanyola de Turisme va assenyalar el 2012 que entre 40.000 i 50.000 sud-coreans havien viatjat a Espanya. Aquesta xifra, validada per l'Institut Nacional d'Estadística (INE) reflecteix que en nou anys l'aportació de l'turisme coreà a Espanya s'ha multiplicat gairebé per vint. Cal destacar que l'últim informe de Casa Àsia (2017) detalla que Catalunya ha absorbit una bona part d'aquestes arribades, per davant de Madrid i Andalusia. Aquesta tendència justifica la necessitat d'analitzar i ampliar la realització d'estudis sobre els turistes coreans amb la finalitat de proposar estratègies de gestió turística per a Barcelona, especialment enfocats a Corea de Sud. De fet, aquest treball es proponeen primer lloc, estimular la realització d'estudis a Barcelona per adquirir més coneixements sobre els turi