Switzerland has maintained bilateral relations with South Korea for 60 years now. To celebrate this anniversary, Switzerland Tourism (ST) organised the “Swiss Spring Street Festival”, which it held in the country’s capital of Seoul from 8 April to 8 May 2023. As part of this festival, ST transformed Gyeongui Line Book Street into a miniature version of Switzerland.

20,000 festival guests per day

On average, 20,000 people visited the festival each day and found inspiration for a trip to Switzerland at the destination partners’ stands. Visitors diligently shared pictures on social media, which generated around 100 posts on Instagram for each of the partners: the Lucerne-Lake Lucerne Region, the Matterhorn Region, Schilthorn, the Swiss Travel System, and Zurich Tourism. The artistic photo walls, which displayed the sights from the respective regions, were also helpful.

Among the guests at the Swiss Spring Street Festival was ST CEO Martin Nydegger. “Switzerland is becoming increasingly popular as a travel destination in South Korea. This is partly also thanks to the 60 years of friendly relations between the two countries,” he says. 

Roger Federer and the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland

The varied supporting programme put together by ST provided a number of highlights at the festival. This included the release of the promotional video for the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland, which features Roger Federer, tennis superstar and brand ambassador for Switzerland as a holiday destination, who joins South African cabaret artist, actor and TV host Trevor Noah on a panoramic train on a journey of discovery through Switzerland. The message: in keeping with the idea behind Swisstainable, Switzerland can be explored in an environmentally friendly way using public transport.