'Gangwon Tourism Stretches Out'... April Visitors Increase Year-on-Year

Balanced Growth on the East Coast and Inland Areas... Capital Region Tourists Visit the Most

[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] According to the analysis of Gangwon tourism trends based on big data by the Gangwon Tourism Foundation in April, the total number of tourists visiting Gangwon Province, including both domestic and international visitors, reached approximately 9.619 million in April this year, marking the highest number of tourists so far this year.

According to the provincial tourism foundation on the 28th, April is generally classified as an off-season for tourism due to the absence of school vacations and public holidays. However, last month saw about a 15% increase compared to the average number of tourists visiting the province in the first quarter of 2021, which was approximately 8.369 million from January to March this year.

This increase is attributed to a higher number of visitors from the metropolitan area, the province's largest tourism market, who visited non-face-to-face natural tourist destinations such as the East Coast and inland mountain tourist spots.

Looking at the tourist growth rate by city and county, Sokcho City recorded the highest increase at about 47.5%, with over 20% of these visitors going to Seoraksan National Park's small park area. This was followed by Donghae City, Yanggu County, Goseong County, Pyeongchang County, and Yangyang County.

On the other hand, a decrease was observed only in Wonju City (7.7%) and Chuncheon City (6.7%), which was found to be due to a decline in visitors in their 20s.

Regarding the departure points of tourists, Songpa-gu in Seoul showed the highest growth rate with about 310,000 visitors, an increase of approximately 93% compared to the previous month. This was followed by Namyangju City in Gyeonggi Province, Gangdong-gu, Gangseo-gu, and Gangnam-gu in Seoul. Among the top 20 departure points, more than half, 11 locations, were in Seoul.

In terms of tourism consumption, the scale of spending reached about 142.7 billion KRW, showing an increase of approximately 10 billion KRW, or about 7.6%, compared to March this year. Among total consumption, food expenditure was the highest at about 100 billion KRW, followed by accommodation, leisure, and transportation.

In particular, through cases such as Surfy Beach in Yangyang County and Jangho Port in Samcheok, it was observed that beach tourist destinations, which previously had seasonal limitations, have transformed into year-round tourist spots, concentrating marine tourism content and creating a synergy effect.

Meanwhile, in the case of Seoraksan in Sokcho, despite the mountain entry restrictions period, there was a tendency to prefer non-face-to-face nature-friendly tourist spots, showing that hiking tourism is active mainly in the lower areas of Seoraksan.

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