Rep. Yang Hyang-ja: "Gwangju Gateway Songjeong Station Should Be Developed as a Local Product Marketing Hub"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] National Assembly member Yang Hyangja (Gwangju Seo-gu Eul) has called for making Songjeong Station, the gateway to Gwangju, a forward base for representative product marketing.

At the ‘Connecting the World, Gwangju Kimchi Day’ event held at Gwangju Kimchi Town on the 13th, Representative Yang stated, “Gwangju Songjeong Station, the gateway to Gwangju, should become a marketing venue for selling Gwangju’s representative products,” adding, “We need to create sales spaces at Gwangju Songjeong Station for products that can represent Gwangju, such as Gwangju Kimchi and Gwangju bread, so that visitors to Gwangju can take Gwangju products as gifts.”

She continued, “This idea has been consistent over time,” and added, “Let’s discuss this actively with Mayor Lee Yong-seop of Gwangju Metropolitan City, City Council Chairman Kim Yong-jip, and other Gwangju National Assembly members to promote it vigorously.”

Representative Yang’s proposal comes in response to criticism that although Gwangju has been conducting various promotional marketing efforts to publicize Gwangju products such as food, there is no tourist product sales center representing Gwangju at Gwangju Songjeong Station, causing missed opportunities to promote Gwangju.

When people visit Gwangju for travel or business, they want to buy at least one product symbolizing Gwangju’s traditions and culture, but there has been no suitable place for that.

Since simply carrying shopping bags with local product names from each local government naturally promotes the region, efforts are being made to establish sales stores for local representative brands at gateway stations.

Daejeon Station has ‘Sungsimdang,’ Singyeongju Station has ‘Hwangnam Bread,’ Dongdaegu Station has ‘Modern Alley Red Bean Bread’ and ‘Samsong Bread,’ along with ‘Medi City,’ and Jeonju Station has ‘Cheonnyeon Nuri Jeonju Food (Jeonju Bread Cafe),’ all established competitively.

The regional brands formed in this way attracted more attention than the official logos that local governments diligently promote.

Gwangju’s marketing of representative brands has been lacking. With the opening of the SRT following the KTX, Gwangju Songjeong Station has emerged as a commercial center, but according to Representative Yang, the only change was from a Busan Odeng sales place to a Gwangju Jumeokbap sales place.

Representative Yang emphasized, “Brands born and popularized in our region should become images representing Gwangju, and this is the start of Gwangju marketing,” adding, “Let’s open stores for Gwangju Kimchi, Gwangju bread, Gwangju rice cakes, etc., at Gwangju’s gateway to gain tangible and intangible economic effects and create jobs.”

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