How K-Dramas Are Turning Filming Locations Into Global Travel Destinations

From 1.4 Million Visitors to Journeys Built Around a TV Scene

More than a third of the 1.4 million people who visited South Korea in September 2024 cited exposure to Korean Wave content, including television dramas and K-pop, as a key reason for their trip, according to the Korea Tourism Organization. In Canada's Québec City, the drama Goblin prompted a 500 percent increase in Korean guest bookings at the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac. In Switzerland, fans of Crash Landing on You have followed its characters to lakeside villages, mountain towns and a panoramic bridge.

These journeys show how Korean television series are influencing travel well beyond South Korea. Viewers are turning an attachment to fictional characters into visits to actual streets, hotels, restaurants and landscapes. A romantic meeting place or a memorable coastal scene can become the starting point for an international holiday.

The practice is called set-jetting: travelling to places featured in films or television shows. It predates the popularity of Korean dramas, with New Zealand's Hobbiton and Croatia's Dubrovnik, associated with Game of Thrones, among the familiar examples. Korean dramas have given the trend another powerful source of destinations, combining stories, charismatic actors and striking scenery that appeal to audiences across Asia, North America and Europe.

For South Korea, the interest is part of its tourism recovery after the pandemic. For businesses at filming locations, it creates opportunities to turn recognition on a screen into hotel stays, restaurant visits and guided excursions. For fans, the attraction is often more personal: standing where a favourite character stood and recalling the emotion of the scene.

Why a Fictional Story Can Shape a Real Holiday

Korean Wave, also known as Hallyu, describes the international appeal of Korean cultural content. The September 2024 tourism figure covers that wider category, including both dramas and K-pop. Television locations are one part of a broader interest that can also draw visitors toward music attractions, food and cultural experiences.

Korean dramas give viewers repeated encounters with a place as a story develops. A tower becomes associated with a romantic meeting, a riverside park with a confession, or a village with characters whose lives viewers have followed. Fans then seek those places to retrace the characters' movements and recreate familiar moments.

Travellers from countries including India, the United States and Thailand describe these visits as a way to enter stories that have moved them. The appeal combines nostalgia, affection for characters and curiosity about the culture surrounding them.

An Indian fan described how visiting filming locations brings those interests together:

Visiting K-drama filming locations is not just about sightseeing—it is about reliving emotions, celebrating characters, and experiencing the blend of modern and traditional culture that makes Korean dramas so universally appealing.

That connection helps explain why a holiday may include both a famous landmark and an ordinary cafe. Each can carry meaning because of what happened there on screen.

Seoul Turns Familiar Backdrops Into Visitor Stops

Seoul remains the main centre of K-drama tourism. Its skyscrapers, historic palaces and fashionable neighbourhoods give productions a wide choice of settings, while visitors can combine several familiar locations within a trip to the capital.

N Seoul Tower, on Namsan Mountain, appears as a romantic meeting place in My Love from the Star and Boys Over Flowers. Couples visit to attach love locks and look across the city, echoing the relationships they watched develop on television.

Bukchon Hanok Village offers a different setting. Its traditional Korean houses and winding alleys give visitors a glimpse of the country's past. The village has appeared in The Heirs and Goblin, connecting its architecture with stories familiar to international audiences.

The Han River is another recurring backdrop. Its parks, bridges and cruise boats provide settings for confessions, breakups and reunions. Fans can visit the riverside and recreate scenes while experiencing a part of the city that also belongs to everyday Seoul.

These attractions show how filming tourism overlaps with conventional sightseeing. A visitor may arrive because of a drama, then spend time exploring the city's history, neighbourhoods and public spaces around the location.

Seoul Builds Tours and Events Around Screen Culture

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has developed the Seoul Quality Tour Programme to connect visitors with the city's cultural heritage, cuisine and Korean entertainment. Its curated day tours include filming locations and K-pop attractions, bringing several interests together rather than treating each screen appearance as an isolated stop.

Demand for immersive experiences is particularly strong among travellers in their 20s and 30s. These visitors seek a closer connection with the stories and stars they enjoy, alongside the opportunity to see the city itself.

Tour companies offer specialised itineraries linked to Itaewon Class, Crash Landing on You and Squid Game. Depending on the route, stops can include fashionable cafes, restaurants and preserved sets. Guided storytelling, photographs and themed activities help visitors connect a physical place with the scene they remember.

Events extend the experience beyond regular tours. K-Content Seoul Travel Week and the Squid Game finale parade bring entertainment into public celebrations through parades, meetings with actors and directors, traditional games and temporary booths offering travel information and local delicacies.

Seoul's government also works with streaming platforms such as Netflix on events including the Squid Game finale parade, drawing thousands of visitors and international media attention. Such gatherings give fans from different countries a shared experience while directing attention toward the city as a destination.

Pohang, Nonsan and Jeju Draw Fans Beyond the Capital

Hometown Cha Cha Cha and When Camellia Blooms have brought attention to Pohang and nearby fishing villages. Their coastal settings give fans reasons to travel outside Seoul, where visits can include murals, preserved sets and experiences connected with local life.

Food becomes part of those journeys. Visitors can sample fresh seafood dishes such as Mulhoe, a spicy raw fish soup, while exploring the places associated with the dramas. A filming location can therefore lead to spending in nearby restaurants as well as at the attraction itself.

In Nonsan, Sunshine Land recreates Seoul in the 1900s and draws fans of the historical drama Mr. Sunshine. Vintage trams, Buddhist bells and carefully recreated sets allow visitors to walk through a physical version of the world they watched on television.

A tour guide at the location described the difference between seeing a production site and recognising a place with personal meaning:

For me, it was just a studio, but for them, it was something much more.

Jeju Island attracts productions and visitors through its beaches, volcanic landscapes and rural villages. Warm and Cozy and Our Blues showcase the island's scenery, encouraging fans to explore trails and coastal walks alongside locations they recognise.

Interest in these destinations spreads tourism spending beyond the capital. It also introduces visitors to fishing communities, historical settings and island landscapes that offer a different experience from Seoul's urban filming routes.

Switzerland Follows the Crash Landing on You Route

Crash Landing on You has made Switzerland a prominent destination for K-drama fans. Its scenes have encouraged visits to Interlaken, Grindelwald and Iseltwald, as well as Lake Brienz and the Sigriswil Panorama Bridge.

These places offer fans a route through the drama's Alpine scenery. Tour companies have created packages that follow the protagonists' footsteps, allowing viewers to connect several locations rather than organise a trip around a single scene.

Jungfrau Railways has reported increased interest from fans eager to experience the landscapes featured in the series and offers tours to its filming sites. The response illustrates how an existing tourism business can build a new experience around a destination's screen identity.

Switzerland also shows why the economic reach of Korean dramas extends outside Korea. A Korean production can generate interest in a foreign setting, with the resulting spending going to transport providers, accommodation businesses and tour operators where filming took place.

Québec City's Hotel and Streets Become Part of Goblin

Goblin, also known as Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, turned Québec City into another international destination for fans. After the drama's release, Korean guest bookings at the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac rose by 500 percent.

The property became known as the Goblin Hotel and introduced a Goblin Package with access to filming locations and themed experiences. Its response connected a place seen on television with an accommodation product that fans could book.

Visitors also seek out the Petit-Champlain district, Pierre-Dugua-De Mons Terrace and Samuel-Holland Park. These stops allow fans to revisit memorable moments from the series against the city's historic architecture.

A fan described the appeal of combining Québec City's own attractions with its connection to the drama:

Québec City is rich in history and culture, and its connection to Goblin makes it a special place for fans of the drama.

The hotel bookings provide a concrete example of a business gaining from screen exposure. The wider route gives visitors reasons to leave the hotel and explore the districts, terraces and parks associated with the story.

Germany and Spain Join the Filming Trail

Queen of Tears has inspired fans to visit Berlin and Potsdam, following the honeymoon route of its lead couple. Berlin Cathedral, Old Market Square and Sanssouci Palace have become stops for viewers seeking the settings of the romantic drama.

Local tourism boards have published guides for K-drama enthusiasts. Those guides connect an existing collection of landmarks with a particular audience, helping fans organise their visits around the places they recognise from the series.

In Spain, Granada experienced a rise in visitors after Memories of the Alhambra aired. The Alhambra palace and fortress provide the central attraction, with fans particularly interested in the Nasrid Palaces and the Court of the Lions.

The drama blends history and fantasy, encouraging viewers to experience the architecture that forms its backdrop. Additional scenes filmed in Girona and Slovenia have also attracted interest from international travellers.

Germany and Spain demonstrate two variations of the same travel pattern. Some fans trace a couple's journey across several landmarks; others focus on a historic complex whose appearance helps define the series. Both turn a television narrative into a way of choosing and organising a holiday.

What Visitors Buy, and What Communities Gain

Hotels, restaurants and tour operators in urban and rural destinations are responding to the interest with packages, themed experiences and temporary events. The Fairmont Le Château Frontenac's Goblin Package and Jungfrau Railways' filming location tours show how businesses turn recognition into specific products.

In South Korea, a filming itinerary can connect cultural landmarks with contemporary attractions. The 14-Day Korean Drama & K-Pop Filming Locations Tour, for example, takes participants to sites across Seoul, Jeju Island and Busan, combining historical places with modern destinations.

Themed cafes, restaurants and university campuses featured in campus romances add further stops. For fans, these smaller settings can feel as closely connected to a favourite story as a famous tower or palace.

Tour operators build the experience through storytelling, opportunities to take photographs and themed activities. Preserved sets offer another kind of visit, allowing travellers to enter a space created specifically for a production rather than a location used in everyday life.

Most K-drama tourism remains concentrated in Seoul, while interest is growing in developing attractions and visitor resources in rural regions. Spreading activity beyond the capital can bring spending to more communities and introduce travellers to less familiar parts of Korean culture and history.

The Korea Tourism Organization's September 2024 figure captures the wider pull of Korean entertainment, while the Québec hotel bookings show a result at an individual business. A total economic value for K-drama tourism was not given. Across the destinations, however, the practical change is visible in the tours, packages and events created for people who first encountered a place through a screen.

Key Points

• More than a third of South Korea's 1.4 million visitors in September 2024 cited Korean Wave content as a key reason for travelling, according to the Korea Tourism Organization.
• Seoul's N Seoul Tower, Bukchon Hanok Village and Han River are major stops for fans visiting drama locations.
• Pohang, Sunshine Land in Nonsan and Jeju Island draw visitors toward coastal communities, historical sets and island scenery.
• Crash Landing on You has encouraged travel to Swiss locations including Iseltwald, Lake Brienz and the Sigriswil Panorama Bridge.
• Goblin prompted a 500 percent increase in Korean guest bookings at Québec City's Fairmont Le Château Frontenac.
• Queen of Tears and Memories of the Alhambra have inspired visits to locations in Germany, Spain and elsewhere in Europe.
• Guided tours, hotel packages, restaurants and public events turn fans' interest into spending across destinations.