▲ This photo, provided by the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation, shows visitors enjoying various traditional events as part of this year's K-Royal Culture Festival, held April 27-May 5, 2024, in Seoul. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

 

SEOUL, Sept. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea should develop unique regional content and encourage private investment to channel growing global interest in the country fueled by the spread of K-culture into regional tourism, a seminar heard Tuesday.

 

The Korea Enterprises Federation and the National Assembly Tourism Industry Forum jointly held a seminar at the National Assembly Library under the theme of improving tourism laws and systems to boost regional economies.

 

Kim Chang-beom, vice chairman of the federation, said in his opening remarks that 34.2 percent of foreign tourists visited regions outside the Seoul metropolitan area in the second quarter of this year, an improvement from the previous year, but that two-thirds still stayed in Seoul and the surrounding metropolitan area.

 

He stressed the need to connect the global popularity of K-culture, including food, films, music and beauty, with unique tourism resources in different regions.

 

Shin Hak-seung, a professor of tourism at Hanyang University, presented cases including Japan's Naoshima, the Snow Country tourism region and Ghibli Park, and called for a shift toward stay-oriented tourism combining unique regional content with private investment.

 

To that end, he proposed creating an investment fund for regional content development, designating tourism regeneration special zones in areas with declining populations, providing tax benefits for investment in stay-oriented tourism infrastructure, and requiring post-event utilization road maps for facilities built for international events.

 

He also stressed that tourism performance should be evaluated qualitatively based not only on the number of visitors but also on length of stay and per-capita spending.

 

Chae Ji-young, a senior researcher at the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, said regional tourism revitalization should not amount to simply replicating K-pop arenas, large concerts and content facilities being developed in Seoul, calling instead for differentiation based on each region's unique industries, food and culture.

 

Citing Japan's tourism industry as an example, she said, "We need to spread interest in South Korea to the regions and make each region a tourism destination in its own right."

 

Participants in the ensuing discussion called for building a tourism ecosystem led by private companies, including local travel agencies and tourism startups, rather than one driven primarily by government agencies.

 

They also proposed turning regional airports into gateways for foreign tourists and expanding cooperation with global online video streaming services.

[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]