Kyobo Book Centre has launched Odyssey:K, a curated travel platform that pairs books with trips.
The service is designed to let readers experience in person the knowledge and emotions they gain from books. Kyobo Book Centre proposes travel themes and itineraries drawing on its book catalog and network of experts, while Hanatour and Hanjin Travel operate the tour packages.
The first offerings are themed trips accompanied by specialists in each field. "From Troy to Ithaca: Walking the Hero's Road Home," led by Professor Kang Dae-jin, follows the route from Troy and Ithaca to Athens as described in classics such as the "Odyssey" and the "Iliad," traveling through Turkey and Greece. "The Moment Sentences From Travel Records Become the Scenery Before You," led by Professor Shin Byung-ju, visits Japan's Kyushu and Kansai regions, where Joseon-era diplomatic missions once traveled, to examine traces of cultural exchange between Korea and Japan.
Existing overseas literary tour packages have also been revamped. Professor Koh Un-gi accompanies a trip to Yuzawa, Japan, the setting of Yasunari Kawabata's novel "Snow Country," while a Tokyo art and literature tour with writer Jung Yeo-ul visits sites associated with Vincent van Gogh and Yun Dong-ju.
Kyobo Book Centre also plans to open an offline space, the Kyobo Book Centre Travel Bookstore, in Naesu-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, in December. The store will curate travel-related books and products and provide a lounge and space for book talks, lectures and workshops. A cafe, Clarimento, is also set to open there.
"Starting with the travel packages we are introducing now, we will present trips covering a range of themes and regions so that readers can extend the interests they discover through books into travel," an official at Kyobo Book Centre said.