Treasure Island Namhae, Revitalizing with a 'Yuja Brand'?

Pukyong National University Wins Grand Prize at Namhae-gun Urban Regeneration Forum Idea Contest
Yuja Street and Yuja Festival... Utilizing Specialty Yuja Fruit as a Tourist Attraction

Pukyong National University team and their advisor who won the Grand Prize at the Namhae-gun Urban Regeneration Forum Idea Contest. (From left: Professor Yang Wi-joo, Heo Won-jin, Park Se-young, Oh Chang-seok)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] ‘Yuja Cafe’, ‘Yuja Workshop’, ‘Yuja Road’, ‘Yuja Festival’. Namhae is a treasure-like island where yuja (citron) can be strung together endlessly.

At an idea competition to revitalize and highlight this Namhae island by adding brand value, students from Pukyong National University won a major award.

It was the Namhae County Mayor’s Award, the grand prize of the ‘2020 Namhae-gun Urban Regeneration Forum National University (Graduate) Student Idea Competition’.

The team of senior students majoring in Tourism Management at Pukyong National University, Park Se-young, Oh Chang-seok, and Heo Won-jin (advised by Professor Yang Wi-joo), won the grand prize with their idea ‘Namhae Yuja Village’ at the competition hosted by the Namhae-gun Urban Regeneration Support Center.

In this idea project, they proposed a plan to expand tourist attraction in Namhae-eup by utilizing yuja, a local specialty of Namhae, and were recognized as having the best idea among the participants.

They analyzed that Namhae-eup lacks tourism content, has low accessibility from other tourist destinations, and suffers from insufficient food and lodging facilities.

Along with this, they diagnosed as a problem the absence of specific images suitable for content using local specialties or Namhae’s brand as the ‘Treasure Island’.

The team came up with business ideas to solve these problems and attract tourists to Namhae-eup.

△ Creating the most Namhae-like village by promoting yuja, Namhae’s specialty △ Reorganizing signboards and changing road names (Yujaro 00-gil) △ Establishing cafes, workshops, and restaurants using yuja within a specialized street △ Exploring linkage plans with startup support centers and youth cultural workshops for young people △ Creating Yuja Street to provide photo zones and attractions that will be memorable for tourists △ Building regional image through the Yuja Festival △ Operating guesthouses utilizing idle spaces, among others.

They anticipated that these projects would help characterize and brand yuja and also contribute to job creation.

With the grand prize achievement of the Pukyong National University student team, Professor Yang Wi-joo (Tourism Management major), who advised them, also received the advisor award.

Namhae-gun plans to utilize the ideas collected through this competition in its urban regeneration New Deal projects.

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