Jeonnam Province Works Hard to Overcome Regional Tourism Industry Crisis and Seek Sustainable Projects

Symposium Held at Gwangju Jeonnam Institute

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province is working hard to overcome the crisis in the local tourism industry caused by COVID-19 and to foster it as a sustainable industry.

On the 22nd, the province announced that it held a symposium at the Gwangju-Jeonnam Research Institute to seek solutions for realizing clean and healing stay-type tourism.

The symposium, held under the theme of ‘Discussion on Jeonnam Tourism Development Plans,’ was attended by about 50 people including academics and experts in the tourism field, as well as officials from the tourism departments of the province and city/county governments.

They discussed ways to activate stay-type tourism by establishing Jeonnam’s status as a representative area of cleanliness and healing despite the COVID-19 crisis.

Professor Kim Jaeho of Inha Technical College attracted attention by presenting various stay-type tourism strategies utilizing Jeonnam’s clean ecological tourism resources in line with recent tourism trends in his presentation titled ‘Development of Stay-type Tourism Content Using National Parks.’

Professor Kim Hyojin of Mokpo National University emphasized the need to develop differentiated wellness beauty tourism products that heal the body and mind of tourists visiting Jeonnam, exhausted from COVID-19, to enhance competitiveness in her presentation on ‘Strategies for Fostering the Wellness Industry for Stay-type Tourism.’

Researcher Kim Minhwa of Consumer Insight analyzed monthly domestic travel survey data in her presentation titled ‘Jeonnam Tourism in 2021 Seen Through Consumer Survey Data’ and suggested discovering tourism policies considering that the proportion of safe tourism focusing on safety and quarantine will increase.

Following the expert presentations, a panel discussion was held with Professor Kim Jingang of Honam University, Professor Park Changgyu of Jeonnam Provincial College, and Kwak Haenggu, Senior Research Fellow at the Gwangju-Jeonnam Research Institute, participating as discussants.

During the discussion, opinions were presented that it is necessary to establish specialized tourism strategies utilizing differentiated tourism resources from other cities and provinces to overcome the stagnant tourism industry and revitalize sustainable local tourism.

The attendees also united in their determination to successfully hold the ‘2022-2023 Jeollanam-do Year of Visit’ and to use this opportunity to lead a vigorous resurgence of Jeonnam tourism.

Kim Youngshin, Director of the Tourism, Culture, and Sports Bureau of Jeonnam Province, said, “We need to establish tourism policies specialized for Jeonnam reflecting the 2022 domestic tourism trends recently announced by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism,” adding, “Through this, we will make Jeonnam stand tall as the central region for stay-type tourism.”

Meanwhile, to promote Jeonnam tourism development, the province has formed the Jeonnam Tourism Development Council since 2010, conducting research projects on tourism revitalization with different themes each year and holding symposiums to exchange diverse opinions.

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