'Get beautiful in Korea': K-beauty festival kicks off

"I feel incredibly proud that K-beauty has earned so much love around the world and established itself as a solid cultural force. Now that I have been given the honor of serving as promotional ambassador, I will work hard to help more people discover the beauty of Korea."

Actor Hyeri made the remarks Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Korea Beauty Festival, held at Hiker Ground in Seoul, where she was officially appointed as the event's promotional ambassador.

Jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization, the 2026 Korea Beauty Festival brings together a wide range of domestic beauty content — from makeup and hair to fashion, medical services and wellness — to attract more foreign visitors. The festival was designed to channel the beauty industry, which accounts for a significant share of foreign tourists' spending in Korea, into nationwide tourism demand, and runs through Sept. 30.

Foreign tourists spent 843.3 billion won ($549 million) last year on beauty-related businesses — including hot springs, hair salons, nail care, massage, makeup, skin and body care, cosmetics and drugstores — using overseas-issued cards for in-person transactions, according to the Korea Tourism Data Lab. That figure represents a 38 percent surge from the previous year.

The economic ripple effect and cultural value of K-beauty are driving the beauty industry to evolve into one of South Korea's defining cultural assets.

Kang Jeong-won, director general of tourism policy at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said in his opening remarks that "people around the world have come to take an interest in Korean style and beauty through K-pop and K-dramas, and that interest is now expanding into cosmetics, fashion, and the medical and wellness industries." He added that "as people come to Korea to experience and enjoy the refined aesthetic sensibility and healthy lifestyle that K-beauty represents, the government will redouble its efforts to establish K-beauty as a core tourism resource."

At the opening ceremony, Hyeri took the stage in an outfit offering a contemporary reinterpretation of hanbok, the traditional Korean garment, to highlight Korea's distinctive aesthetic values. In her remarks as the newly appointed ambassador, she described the Korean beauty market as one that goes beyond external care to embrace a holistic approach to mind and body, and expressed her hope that foreign visitors attending the festival would enjoy discovering their own personal style.

"I believe beauty begins with finding what suits each individual best," Hyeri said. "The Korean beauty market has so many wonderful products, and I hope visitors use this festival as a chance to enjoy the process of finding the ones that perfectly match their preferences and skin type."

The Korea Beauty Festival is being run as a comprehensive marketing initiative that goes beyond a one-off exhibition, tightly linking business consultations with regional tourism product development. On Thursday, a travel mart — a tourism product trade fair — will be held alongside a welcome dinner, with 48 companies participating, including 39 travel agencies from 16 countries and domestic beauty and medical businesses. Honorary Korea tourism ambassadors, including Japan's Hasegawa Kyoko, Mexico's Ceci de la Cueva and Mongolia's Chadrabal Ganginz, will attend the dinner and take part in a talk show on K-beauty. A familiarization tour will then run through Monday, taking 93 overseas travel agents and influencers to major beauty, wellness and medical tourism destinations across the country — including Seoul, Jeju, Busan and Gangwon Province — to encourage the development of region-specific tourism products.

Large-scale offline experiences for general consumers and global online promotions will also be rolled out. A pop-up zone operating near Hiker Ground in Seoul through Sunday will offer AI-based personal color analysis, hair and makeup experiences, and professional beauty classes. Online, a special sale featuring around 800 beauty tourism products at discounted prices will run through nine global travel platforms — including Mafengwo, Klook and Trip.com — until late September.

The Korea Tourism Organization, which is overseeing the festival, plans to deploy a systematic marketing strategy to spread the benefits of attracting foreign visitors nationwide, drawing on Korea's strong beauty infrastructure. The organization said it will emphasize the country's long-cultivated wellness sensibility and the credibility of its hands-on programs.

Korea Tourism Organization President Park Seong-hyeok said the social media trend of "let's go to Korea and get beautiful" has been gaining popularity, and that Korea has already emerged as a destination for "glowcation" — travel for beauty purposes. "We will use this festival as a springboard to turn the world's interest in K-beauty into actual visits to Korea and real consumer spending," he said.