Purpose: This study investigated the preference and awareness of consumers residing in the capital area with respect to South and North Korean regional cuisine to provide baseline data for developing effective commercialization strategies. Methods: This survey was conducted among adults over the age of 19 years who were residing in Seoul and Gyeonggi province area, and data analysis was performed using SPSS WIN 18.0. Results: Analysis of the survey participants’ preference for South and North Korean regional cuisine showed that Hwanghae province had the highest preference by 4.35±1.72 points, whereas Gangwon province had the lowest preference by 3.75±0.66 points. Factorial analysis on general characteristics of Korean regional cuisine resulted in 2 factors - ‘locality’ and ‘health’. Cluster analysis showed that participants could be sorted into two clusters by their awareness of Korean regional cuisine - ‘the lower cognitive group’ and ‘the higher cognitive group’. Cluster analysis on the tourism commercialization strategy for Korean regional cuisines showed that ‘the higher cognitive group’ had significantly higher awareness regarding the following 3 items: ‘merchandising strategy’, ‘popularization strategy’ and ‘marketing strategy’ (p<0.001). Cluster analysis of the world commercialization strategy showed that ‘the higher cognitive group’ had significantly higher awareness regarding all items of the ‘R&D support strategy’ and ‘Food culture promotion strategy’ categories than the ‘the lower cognitive group’ (p<0.01). Conclusion: Popularization strategies such as value perception based on the well-being concept, and standardization of recipes; merchandising strategies based on storytelling; and food and culture promotional strategies such as Korean cooking classes and food tasting events, were rated as effective commercialization strategies to increase the popularity of Korean regional cuisine.