S.Korean travel guide featuring BTS published

The Korea Economic Daily (KED) on Tuesday released The Purple Road, a tourist guide of South Korea highlighting places where the seven members of the K-pop phenomenon BTS and their fans have visited.

For the latest edition of KED's publication series Hankyung Trend, Hankyung Magazine's travel desk covered sites where the boy band visited and about 130 attractions recommended by the BTS fan community Army.

The guide seeks to promote domestic travel destinations to Army members worldwide by highlighting places where the group traveled to or worked.

The featured locations include Seoul, where the seven started out as trainees and endured years of hard work and stress to eventually emerge as a global sensation; Wanju County, North Jeolla Province, which is featured in the photobook "BTS Summer Package in Korea"; Maengbang Beach in Samcheok, Gangwon Province, where the boy band's music video for its hit "Butter" was filmed and is protected by Army; and Busan, the hometown of members Jimin and Jungkook.

A section covers nine regional areas visited by BTS like Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, Gwangju and Jeju Island, allowing planning of optimal travel routes through information like travel times between spots and day and overnight tours.

Readers can plan their own BTS-themed trips based on their preferences as The Purple Road shows restaurants visited by the group, art galleries frequented by its leader RM, who has deep knowledge of fine arts, filming locations of music videos for the hits "War of Hormone," "Save Me" and "Spring Day," and where group members pursued their hobbies.

Another feature is messages of support from Army members whom KED met during its coverage. For example, an Italian named Erica said she wrote her master’s thesis on BTS and Baek Ji-eun, a Korean who compiled entries of her BTS fan diary into a book, said, "BTS is more than an idol group -- it's an icon of an era led by culture."

A map of the country also shows the places where BTS members have visited.

Write to Ze-Na Yoon at zena@hankyung.com