President Lee Jae-myung said that BTS's comeback concert at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on June 21 "really played a major role in promoting Korea."
At a Cabinet meeting held at the Blue House on Tuesday, Lee received a report from Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Choi Hwi-young on the BTS concert. "More foreign tourists will now come to Gwanghwamun," Lee said. "This BTS concert was decisive in promoting Gwanghwamun and promoting Korea. It was well planned and well executed. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety and related agencies worked hard. They managed safety issues well, and it went without incident."
Minister Choi reported that "the crowd gathered at the Gwanghwamun Square site was smaller than expected, as we had projected maximum numbers for safety management purposes." He added, "Through the Netflix live broadcast, the attention of young people around the world was drawn to Gwanghwamun in the heart of Seoul. In terms of national branding and the global spread of K-culture, I believe we enjoyed an immeasurable and tremendous effect."
Choi also noted, "Despite the war situation in the Middle East, our inbound tourist numbers increased 31% year-on-year in March. What is particularly noteworthy is that visitors in their teens and twenties grew at a rate above the average." He added that "the spread of K-culture has had a positive effect on inbound tourist arrivals."
For BTS's comeback concert at Gwanghwamun Square on June 21, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism initially projected a crowd of 170,000 to 260,000 and mobilized more than 10,000 police officers and government officials over the weekend. However, the actual turnout fell far short of projections. The Seoul Metropolitan Government calculated approximately 40,000 attendees based on real-time crowd data, while HYBE, the concert organizer, estimated the figure at 100,000.
President Lee's emphasis on "no safety incidents" at the Cabinet meeting is interpreted as signaling he does not intend to take issue with the controversy over what critics have called an excessive administrative response by police and other authorities.