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| yna@yna.co.kr 2023-01-28 16:38:11
SEOUL, Jan. 28 (Yonhap) – Geoje, a city in South Gyeongsang Province, also known as a “City of Shipbuilding,” has started to leap forward as a tourist city by promoting diverse tourism projects this year.
The City announced Saturday its plan to resume the operation of the Geoje Blue City Tour, which has been put on hold since January of last year.
The City Tour is a course tour of major tourist attractions in the jurisdiction, including the Historic Park of Geoje POW Camp, Maemiseong Castle, and Oedo. The tour has been serving as a representative experiential tourism product of the city but was shelved since Jan. 1 of last year in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Geoje City has recently agreed to resume the Tour in order to revitalize local tourism with the COVID-19 social distancing measures finally being removed. In a meeting held among officials from 9 travel agencies in the city on Thursday, the officials put their heads together to seek ways to resume the operation of the tour.
Geoje City plans to carry out a slew of projects with the objective of reviving the local tourism industry, starting with the resumption of the tour. “The Geoje Island Ordinance for Supporting Tour Revitalization” was also enacted on Jan. 6 and implemented.
The ordinance was implemented in order to revitalize tourism and prosper the local economy as a city with more than 70 islands. Geoje will be the only city in South Korea to enact ordinances created for the sake of revitalizing island tours.
Geoje City is more often referred to as a shipbuilding city with Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries operating in the jurisdiction; in a self-survey conducted at the end of Dec. last year among 1,548 local residents who were asked about the “image that comes to mind when one thinks about Geoje,” 1,155 residents, which accounts for more than 74% of the surveyees, responded that they tend to resonate the “City of Shipbuilding” with Geoje.
Only 294 respondents (19%) answered that they think of Geoje as the “Marine Tourism Leisure City.” The survey itself explains the reason behind the surge in the budget for this year’s Okpo Battle Memorial Festival, which increased from 260 million won last year to 470 million won this year.
The City also signed a business agreement on Jan. 11 with Gyeongnam-do and the JMTC consortium; the three joined hands to establish Geoje Jangmok Tourism Complex as an international maritime tourism hub.
Jangmok Tourist Complex is a large-scale project in which the city invested KRW 1.2 trillion to be furnished with an array of rich performances, exhibitions, gardens, and commercial facilities.
“Geoje boasts outstanding tourism resources and competitiveness compared to any other city in South Korea,” Mayor Park said. “From now on, we will be presenting the city more as an attractive tourist site so that more people will be willing to visit the city.”
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Ha eun Lee)
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