Seoul’s Senior Public Diplomacy Group led 40 Korea-based bloggers, photographers and foreign correspondents on a tour of Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Saturday.

The Senior Public Diplomacy Group, a Foreign Ministry-affiliated nonprofit organization, to promote the UNESCO World Heritage Site and find out how people from overseas saw it.

Participants in the tour also got another chance to take pictures for a photo and essay contest run by the SPDG. The first part of the competition took place during a tour of Namhansanseong Fortress in April.

The SPDG is a group of 20 “public diplomats” established by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as part of the Center for Public Diplomacy in 2012, and is aimed at raising awareness of Korea.

The tours are part of the group’s efforts to engage with expat bloggers and correspondents who are based in Korea, because of their growing audiences particularly among people who traditional Korean media do not reach, the group said in a press release.

They are also familiar with Korea while maintaining a Western perspective, which also makes them good sources of feedback on what foreign audiences are interested in.

The competition will culminate with an awards ceremony for the best submissions by the new media participants at a special cultural event hosted by SPDG at the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan in Seoul on Sept. 6.

By Paul Kerry (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)