Korean Wave In Tanzania: How Does It Affect Korea Image, Purchasing Tendency And Tourism?

In recent years, Korea has increasingly recognized the importance of culture as an essential diplomatic tool. Cultural diplomacy—which is a sub-component of public diplomacy—is primarily about influencing the attitudes and opinions of peoples in other nations through various aspects of culture— i.e., art, music, films, information, ideas. Opinion, for example, refers to how people perceive another country or how they evaluate products originating from that country. Attitude, on the other hand, may consist in how country-image influences the buying decisions of peoples in other nations. To evaluate these propositions, the current study uses a survey conducted in 2017 on the spread of Korean Popular Culture—Korean Wave or Hallyu—in Tanzania. It addresses two core questions: (1) whether and how the Korean popular culture is correlated with Tanzanian people’s opinion about Korea; and (2) How Tanzanian people’s opinion about Korea shapes their decisions of purchasing Korean products, as well as their willingness to travel to Korea. Results suggest that the spread of Korean popular culture would improve Korea image, which in turn would influence Tanzanians’ purchase decisions of Korean products, as well as their willingness to travel to Korea. With these results, the study offers some lessons that could be of interest for Korean public diplomacy in Africa.