Korean boy band T-Max will receive an award from the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) for their contribution in promoting Korean culture, according to their agency on Tuesday.

They have been selected as “Hallyu Stars of 2009” by KTO and will be presented the award at the 2009 Hallyu Tourism Night event on December 19, to be held at Yonsei University.

The “Hallyu” event will feature a special performance from T-Max as well as a video showing of overseas promotional videos which stars a handful of K-pop stars including Son Ho-young, Andy, Kim Joon and F.T Island.

“We are very proud and happy to share in the responsibility of continuing the popularity of Korean Wave,” T-Max members were quoted as saying. “We will continue our efforts in promoting Korea to overseas markets in the future.”

According to KTO, the number of tourists who visited Korea last month was counted at over seven million visitors, a record-high for the month of November.

T-Max had recently also held a Hallyu Star autograph session at Incheon International Airport as part of their activities as promoting the city of Incheon.

T-Max, who debuted in 2007, is best known for their song “Paradise” which was featured in the soundtrack for hit TV series “Boys Over Flowers”. The group’s rapper Kim Joon achieved an even greater success playing an F4 member, one of the key characters, in the drama.

The group became popular throughout Asia, thanks to the success of “Flowers” and several of their songs on the soundtrack including "Say Yes", "Wish You're My Love", "Fight The Bad Feeling" and "Bang Bang Boom".

They recently wrapped up a concert in Singapore and are set to perform in Japan next week. The concert, titled “Christmas Talk & Live Show Merry ChrisT-MAX”, will be held in Tokyo and Osaka on December 22 and 23, respectively.

Reporter : Lynn Kim lynn2878@asiae.co.kr
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@asiae.co.kr
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