Wando-gun 'Cheongsando Slow Walking Festival' Held for 32 Days from April 4

Operating Over 50 Programs Including Nabiya Cheongsan Gaja and Gudlejang Non-Field Experience

At the 2019 Cheongsando Slow Walking Festival, the program "Butterflies, Let's Go to Cheongsando" was held, releasing 1,000 cabbage butterflies. (Photo by Wando-gun)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Kyung-pil] Wando-gun, Jeollanam-do announced on the 14th that it will hold the ‘20 Wando Cheongsando Slow Walking Festival’ for 32 days from April 4 to May 5 at Cheongsando, Asia’s first Slow City.

On the 10th, the Cheongsando Slow Walking Festival Promotion Committee was held at the Wando-gun Office Situation Room, where executives were selected, the festival period was confirmed, the method for selecting an agency was decided, and subcommittees were formed.

The Cheongsando Slow Walking Festival began in 2009 to commemorate Cheongsando’s designation as Asia’s first Slow City and to offer visitors the aesthetics of slowness. It has been held for 11 years with a total of about 770,000 participants, and this year marks its 12th edition.

The 2019 Cheongsando Slow Walking Festival attracted 84,893 visitors. Despite the amendment of the Ship Safety Act that prohibited temporary passenger increases during the festival period, the number of visitors increased by 2.16% compared to 2018, generating an economic inducement effect of 14 billion KRW.

The ‘20 Cheongsando Slow Walking Festival’ will operate over 50 diverse programs including Cheongsanwanbo, Nabiya Cheongsan Gaja, and Cheongsando Gudlejang Rice Paddy Experience.

The official opening ceremony will be held on April 11, and unlike previous years, it will be conducted as a format-breaking program by holding the opening ceremony onboard a passenger ship departing from Wando Port together with tourists.

In particular, since the success of the Slow Walking Festival is greatly affected by the weather at sea, countermeasures for this will also be prepared.

Additionally, based on improvements identified in last year’s festival, photo zones using scenic crops such as barley will be expanded, and unique content will continue to be discovered and operated.

The ‘Nabiya Cheongsan Gaja’ program, which has been operated until last year by releasing 1,000 cabbage butterflies annually, is under consideration to release 2,020 butterflies twice this year due to strong public demand for expansion.

Lee Song-hyun, Director of Tourism at Wando-gun Office, said, “It was regrettable that the festival held in Wando-gun, which is rich in tourism resources, was not selected as a representative festival of Jeollanam-do last year. This year, we will do our best in operation and promotion to successfully hold the ‘20 Cheongsando Slow Walking Festival,’ which is Korea’s representative island and marine festival, and to be selected as a top domestic festival.”

Meanwhile, Cheongsan Nonghyup plans to significantly increase passenger ship operations during the Cheongsando Slow Walking Festival period, and it takes about 50 minutes from Wando Port Passenger Terminal to Cheongsando Docheong Port.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.