The effects of K-Pop on Singaporean fans’ perception of Korea as a potential tourist destination.

As the fan base for Korean popular (K-pop) cultural contents grow exponentially among Singaporeans. As the number of Singaporeans traveling to Korea increases annually, a need to study the effects of K-pop on influencing Korean tourism arose. Past studies have explored film-induced tourism, and how parasocial relationships with celebrities could influence the fan’s behaviour and attitude. However, as Korean variety programmes are gaining favours from K-pop fans around the world, this K-pop content should be explored as well. This paper will look at Korean dramas, movies, music, variety programmes, celebrities, and how these contents are related to intention. Other than consumption of contents, familiarity and image of Korea in the minds of the respondents plays an important role in influencing intention to travel as well.Results showed that K-pop fans in Singapore were mainly female teenagers, and they usually consume K-pop related materials from the Internet. The Internet has made K-pop contents more readily available to people around the world. Because a wider selection of contents is made available, fans are spending a lot of time on these materials. Consumption – amount of time and money spent on these K-pop contents, have shown to have a positive relationship with the intention to travel to Korea. Korean celebrities were shown to be the most influential factor that leads to a trip to Korea.Bachelor of Communication Studie