Nowadays the trend group is BTS and we see BTS fans everywhere, so we almost never see anything against them since their fans will defend them and bury the accusations in a minute.

YG keeps getting dragged for media play but what about Big Hit and the fans? (Not defending YG, they do it as well). Don't they do media play as every company? They do... and they are not a small company. So why fans act like they don't?

I can talk about the album sales, concerts, company value and so but let's focus on the recent news.

Here is the articles about BTS' impact on tourism and economy.

04/07/2018

The title says, "Head of S.K. ministry of culture, sports and tourism says BTS has a nearly $1 billion impact on the economy."

However, the content says different:Do Jong Hwan,head of S.K ministry of culture, sports and tourism said, "When Psy was active, the economic effect amounted up to about 1 trillion won (~$896M). I predict that BTS will easily surpass 1 trillion won. Bae Yong Joon, through the drama 'Winter Sonata', created an economic value of about 3 trillion won. But when BTS was ranking 1st (on Billboard), the nation did nothing."

https://www.allkpop.com/article/2018/07/head-of-south-korean-ministry-of-culture-sports-and-tourism-says-bts-has-nearly-a-1-billion-impact-on-the-economy

So, the head of S.K. ministry of culture, sports and tourism, in July 2018,just PREDICTED that BTS' economic effectwould surpass 1 trillion won and he linked it to PSY's success on Billboard charts, since BTS succeeded on Billboard charts too.

As you can see, BTS' economic effect wasn't even 1 trillion won till July 2018.

This one was twisted by an editor who is a fan, but the rest were translated directly from Korean articles.

18/05/2019

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/05/233131/bts-three-billion-south-korean-tourism
When the head of ministry, sports and culture had actually said that BTS' impact to enonomy wasn't even 1 trillion won till July 2018, this article claimed that BTS made 4 trillion won in 10 months in 2019.

18/12/2018

https://www.soompi.com/article/1279967wpp/btss-10-year-economic-impact-korea-expected-reach-56-trillion-won

The article also states that BTS broughtin an annual average of 796,000 tourists in 2018, roughly 7.6 percent of 2017’s total number of 10.4 million.

Summary:

-BTS' impact on economy wasn't 1 trillion won till July 2018 as the head of ministry and culture said. They were still the trend group in 2018.

-The article which was published in May 2019, 10 months after what the head said, claimed that BTS' impact on economy was 4.3 trillion won.

-And the other article states that experts and the research institute expected that BTS' impact on economy would be 56 trillion won till 2023.


Questions:

1. BTS is the top trend group since early 2017. They couldn't reach 1 trillion won impact till May 2018, as the head said. A group who is claimed to have made ~5 trillion won impact on the economy in 7 years will make ~51 trillion won impact on the economy in the next 3 years. Isnt this too exaggerated? (an article claimed that they have made 4.3 trillion won impact in 2019)

2. Trends continuously keep changing.  TVXQ,  SUPER JUNIOR, BIGBANG, EXO. These were the top trend groups from 2007 to 2017 for 10 years, all of them had their peak for a few years and changed, so how is BTS expected to grow up consistently till 2023? (These groups I have mentioned had been rewarded with medals and certification by the head of ministry, sports and culture for attracting tourists and effecting the economy and been declared as tourism ambassadors but they were never exaggerated with such articles)

3. Why is BTS' 10 year in industry is compared to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics?

4. Why is everything "expected", "estimated" or "predicted"?

5. How do they know how many tourists came for what, and what they spent their money on? Just because they surveyed 200 people? Does the surveys reflect the reality? I mean if you survey people in Gangnam, which is full of idol cafes and Kpop stuff, you would get a different answer, if you survey people in another place or another city, you would get completely different answer. So, what about the spendings? How do they know that X things was bought by tourists?

*****We've read many articles about BTS' impact on tourism and economy. As you may know United Nations World Tourism Organization released 2018 annual tourism report. Now let's see the change in South Korea's tourism.

https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/pd...

South Korea made a revenue of $32 billion; (only 1% increase compared to 2017) and the growth is linked to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

These are the number of international visitor arriving in South Korea.

Just like in most countries, tourist numbers increase regularly each year in South Korea too. Compared to 2017, 2.3 million more tourists visited South Korea but is it really BTS impact as some research institutes and articles claim? South Korea was visited by 1.9 million more  tourists in 2016 compared to 2018...

Now let's see the actual reason why S.K.'s visitors increased by 2.3 million in 2018 than in 2017:

"The number of foreigners who arrived in South Korea jumped 15 percent in 2018 from a year earlier due to a base effect after visits by Chinese tourists plunged in 2017, the local tourism promotion agency in Seoul said Wednesday.

The number of Chinese tourists shot up 14.9 percent to 4.78 million, accounting for 31.2 percent of the total, which marks a 14.9 percentage-point rise from the previous year.

In March 2017, China banned group tours to South Korea in retaliation for Seoul's deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system. The ban was partially lifted later."

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/culture/2019/01/141_262527.html



So, the reason for the -22.7% decline in tourist numbers in 2017 was China's ban on tourism to South Korea during THAAD and the reason for the increase in 2018 was the lift on the ban. 

Consequently, although Pyeongchang Winter Olympics brought in a huge amount of tourists and China lifted the ban, South Korea couldn't attract as many tourists as in 2016. 

So, why do we always read articles implying that Korea's tourism is growing thanks to BTS, 1 out of 13 tourists in SK visit because of BTS, tourist number increased by 7.6% thanks to BTS' impact?

There is no doubt that such articles provide more investment in the company and more sponsorship and CFs for the group but I don't think this is the only reason. These articles made people think that BTS has the biggest role in the economy and tourism. Isn't it right? They even forgot how many trillion dollars Korean companies bring in, such as Samsung, LG, cosmetics and how many tourists visit Korea just to buy these for cheaper, especially the electronic goods.

I hope you share your thoughts objectively bacause all the entertainment companies are displayed as the satan and Big Hit is displayed as lily-white since the trend group BTS blongs to them. Also don't forget that YG, SM and JYP were declared as lily white and they were the most loved companies for some years but right now they are always getting blamed.