According to The Washington Post, Iseltwald village - which has only about 400 residents - has continuously attracted international tourists since the movie "Crash landing on you" aired in 2019-2020.
Once a peaceful stop, almost unappreciated by foreign tourists, Iseltwald has now become a "must-visit" destination for Korean movie lovers.
Landing in Your Landing" tells the love story between Yoon Se Ri (Son Ye Jin) - a female heir to a Korean tycoon group who accidentally paraglides to North Korea, and Ri Jeong Hyeok (Hyun Bin) - a North Korean officer who hides and protects her, and then gradually develops feelings for each other.
The film became a global phenomenon, playing an important role in expanding the K-drama (Korean drama) wave in the world.
A special filming location in Iseltwald has captured the hearts of fans: the Brienz lakeside pier, where Ri Jeong Hyeok played the piano during his study abroad in Switzerland.
This is also where Yoon Se Ri accidentally heard the sound of a piano on her trip. Since then, the once rarely used pier has become a "favorite tourist destination".
The Washington Post reported that Stefanie and Caleb Rouse, a couple from Pittsburgh, visited Iseltwald in October last year and had to wait nearly 2 hours just to get on the pier to take pictures.
While waiting, they chatted with movie fans from Korea and Japan. When they set foot on the pier, they turned on the movie soundtrack "Landing You" to recreate the scene. "When the music played and the sun gradually set, that moment was truly sweet and romantic," Stefanie Rouse shared.
Local tourism officials said that the pier was originally built to be a boat anchorage but in fact rarely used. Everything changed after the movie aired, and this location quickly became globally famous.
The number of visitors decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but after the border reopened in 2022, the village began to receive up to 1,000 visitors per day.
However, the sudden increase in the number of visitors also brings many challenges. Iseltwald does not have enough infrastructure to receive mass tourism, leading to congestion, traffic problems and affecting people's daily lives. Some residents even reflect that tourists go into private gardens and residential areas.
Faced with that situation, local authorities have limited tourist cars to two trips every two hours, and at the same time installed a control gate system at the pier and charged an entrance fee of 5 Swiss francs. As a result, in 2024 alone, Iseltwald is said to have earned about 307,000 USD from pier entrance fees.
However, tourism officials said that the revenue growth momentum has begun to slow down, as many tourists are currently only taking photos near the pier instead of going inside.
But the persistent appeal of "Hạ cánh nơi anh" continues to bring global attention and stable economic benefits to this once quiet Swiss village.
