Yongsan-gu Itaewon Local Brand Enhancement Project Officially Launched

Yongsan-gu Launches Full-Scale Project to Strengthen Itaewon Local Brands

Recently Held Kick-off Meeting for Operation Service of Local Brand Commercial Area Strengthening Project

Selected for Seoul City Local Brand Commercial Area Strengthening Project, Securing up to 1.5 Billion KRW in Project Funds

Promoting Sustainable Commercial Area Revitalization through Strengthening Itaewon Local Brands

Yongsan-gu (Mayor Park Hee-young) is actively advancing the Itaewon Local Brand Strengthening Project to add synergy to the recovery of the commercial area.

This follows the final selection of the Itaewon commercial area in March for the 2023 Local Brand Commercial Area Strengthening Project hosted by Seoul City. To ensure smooth project implementation, the district recently held a kick-off meeting for the operation service.

The Local Brand Commercial Area Strengthening Project selects distinctive local commercial areas and supports the private sector in autonomously enhancing their commercial area management capabilities. The goal is to strengthen competitiveness and sustainability as representative alleyway commercial areas of Seoul.

The entities driving the Itaewon Local Brand Strengthening Project include Yongsan-gu, the Commercial Area Strengthening Organization (commercial area operating institution), merchants, and the local residents forming the Commercial Area Council.

Up to 1.5 billion KRW (1.24 billion KRW from city funds and 260 million KRW from district funds) will be invested through 2025, with the project proceeding in three phases. Phase 1 involves establishing the commercial area vision and plan; Phase 2 focuses on strengthening commercial area capabilities; and Phase 3 is the ecosystem creation stage.

World Food Street

Through the operation service for the Local Brand Commercial Area Strengthening Project, the district will establish the basic plan for Phase 1. The basic plan includes ▲analysis of key commercial area status and characteristics ▲presentation of local branding vision ▲plans for building local branding BI and commercial area revitalization content, event and festival promotional campaign planning ▲and the establishment of a local creator community.

In Phase 2, the commercial area capability strengthening stage, activities such as collaboration among local brands and discovery of new content will be carried out centered on the Commercial Area Strengthening Organization. In Phase 3, sustainable commercial area ecosystems will be created through the implementation of strategic projects by commercial area, strengthening local brands, and building human networks.

Park Hee-young, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, stated, “Through this project, we will strengthen Itaewon’s unique local brands,” and added, “We will continue to make multifaceted efforts to revitalize the sustainable Itaewon commercial area.”

The Itaewon commercial area is a global cultural street where diverse national cultures can be enjoyed in one place, and was designated as Seoul’s first tourism special zone in the 1990s.

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