Wando Marine Healing Center, Newly Utilizing Marine Resources

Discovering New Values of Marine Resources such as Seawater, Mudflats, and Seaweed

Aerial view of Wando Marine Healing Center (Photo by Wando-gun)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Kyung-pil] Recently, attempts to scientifically prove the efficacy of marine healing resources have been steadily progressing in Korea.

Accordingly, Wando-gun plans to utilize seawater, mudflats, seaweed, maekbansuk stone, and local specialties such as Hwangchil and Bipa as healing resources, and is currently analyzing their components.

Furthermore, with the groundbreaking of the Marine Healing Center, which will serve as the control tower for the marine healing industry, scheduled for the 31st of next month, it is expected to create new value from various marine resources.

The Marine Healing Center will be constructed on the site of the 2nd parking lot at Sinji Myeongsasimni Beach, with one basement floor and two above-ground floors. The basement will house the resource management room; the first floor will feature a seawater pool accessible to everyone and five therapy rooms; and the second floor will have eleven specialized therapy rooms utilizing mudflats, seaweed, and other resources.

The Marine Healing Center will operate two types of programs: general healing programs and specialized programs tailored to specific body parts and purposes.

On the first floor, where general programs are held, a large seawater pool, air bubbles, and various shower facilities are installed to provide diverse massage effects. Daily regular programs such as aqua aerobics and aqua Nordic exercise programs are conducted in the seawater pool.

There is also a meditation pool on the first floor equipped with an underwater sound and video system. Utilizing high-salinity seawater, underwater rehabilitation exercises such as Watsu, which aids joint treatment, and floating therapy, effective for pain relief, are performed.

The therapies help with muscle relaxation, spinal disease relief, stress reduction through underwater sound and video, and improvement of lymph circulation and skin diseases due to seawater components.

Additionally, there will be a seaweed foam therapy room where the nutritional components of seaweed can be applied to the entire body as foam, a mudflat therapy room using natural mudflats harvested in Wando, and a seawater mist room that aids in skin improvement and respiratory disease relief.

On the second floor, where specialized programs can be experienced, a diagnostic room will be established to propose personalized programs through skin condition measurement and full-body posture analysis, as well as to manage comparisons before and after programs and maintain records.

The specialized programs consist of wet therapy rooms using water with seawater, seaweed, and mudflats (such as steam showers, seaweed bath therapy, and ultrasound therapy) and dry therapy rooms without water (including color, sound, music, and aroma therapy) conducted with professional therapists.

The county plans to establish and operate a (tentatively named) Marine Healing Corporation for healing therapy and resource management, and alongside center operations, will strive for regional coexistence through promotions and events linked with accommodation facilities.

Moreover, the resources used at the healing center will be commercialized and productized through joint research and development with bio-research companies, aiming to increase revenue generation.

County Governor Shin Woo-cheol stated, “The Wando Marine Healing Center will be Korea’s first center focused on healing therapies utilizing marine resources in one place,” and added, “We will develop it as a facility that uses Wando-produced healing resources to benefit the residents.”

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