Pohangman's Nature, History, Culture, and Festival Fusion Tourism Industry Fully Blossoms

Tourist Increase Trend, Tourism Industry Clearly Revitalized... Incentives Exhausted Early

Six Dramas Filmed Featuring International Cruise Hub City and Tourist Attractions

Hallyu Tourism Content Anticipated, Major Festivals Successfully Hel

Pohang City is actively utilizing its unique tourism resources that reflect the identity and characteristics of Pohang, including nature, history, and culture. As the accumulated tourism potential gradually blossoms, the tourism industry is becoming more vibrant in the endemic era.

According to the city, about 2.12 million tourists visited 22 major tourist sites by April this year. This figure represents an approximately 30% increase compared to 1.7 million during the same period last year. When including tourist sites not counted in the statistics, such as Jukdo Market and Yeongildae Beach, the increase in tourists is estimated to be even greater.

This is analyzed as the result of the tourism revitalization policies promoted by Pohang City across various fields amid the easing of COVID-19.

First, the city expanded incentives for travel agencies attracting group tourists to Pohang tourism to a total of 200 million KRW this year and greatly simplified the procedures. As a result, the budget was exhausted early within four months, receiving great response and promoting an increase in tourists.

Also, the Pohang International Fireworks Festival and the Marine Corps Cultural Festival, representative local festivals held normally for the first time in four years, attracted 250,000 and 50,000 tourists respectively, earning praise for achieving both ‘safety first + economic revitalization.’

2023 Pohang International Fireworks Festival.

The city plans to leap forward as a festival tourism city by hosting various and creative festivals such as ‘Ricofesta,’ a small but distinctive eco-friendly festival led by citizens, and ‘Healing Feeling Cheolgilsup Night Tour,’ which seeks new ways for urban night tourism.

At Yeongilman Port, a large international cruise ship of 110,000 tons, the largest scale since the port opened, recently departed with about 3,000 tourists on board, successfully completing a trial operation.

The large international passenger ship Costa Serena, which departed from Pohang Yeongilman Port on the 5th.

When international cruise tourism fully resumes in the future, linked with the completion of the expansion of the international passenger terminal, Yeongilman Port is expected to contribute to regional economic revitalization by attracting large-scale international tourists as a hub for East Sea cruise travel and commercializing high value-added tourism products.

In particular, the ‘landmarks’ centered on Pohang’s 215 km of pristine coastal scenery and marine resources are also gaining attention.

The Space Walk, the largest experiential sculpture in Korea, has welcomed over 1.5 million tourists within a year and a half since its opening, and the country’s longest sea skywalk has steadily gained popularity, emerging as a nationwide hot spot.

With the columnar joints in Odori, Heunghae, recently designated as a natural monument due to their geological value, the city plans to create a coastal natural ecology theme park by installing observatories and other facilities for easy viewing.

Pohang Odori Columnar Jointing.

Above all, the city is focusing on promoting the ‘Homigot Peninsula National Marine Garden’ in the Homigot Peninsula area, expecting it to play a pivotal role in future economic growth through the tourism industry utilizing natural ecological resources as well as cultural resources.

Pohang’s tourism ‘software’ and ‘hardware’ are also being upgraded.

The city completely revamped the existing Pohang Culture and Tourism website and opened the newly renovated ‘Ppangppang Travel’ this year. ‘Ppangppang Travel’ is a comprehensive web platform for Pohang culture and tourism that integrates ICT to provide smart and convenient tourism guidance and an integrated reservation system to users.

Additionally, in areas such as Guryongpo and Cheongha Gongjin Market, major filming locations for popular Korean dramas ‘When the Camellia Blooms’ and ‘Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha,’ the city is actively engaging in stay-and-experience tourism marketing through the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s planned regional tourism development project, media art screenings, photo zones, and observatory installations.

Notably, about six dramas are currently being filmed at various tourist attractions around the region, which is expected to become ‘special tourism content unique to Pohang’ that will attract Hallyu tourists in the future.

In the Homigot area of Pohang, covering 50 hectares (150,000 pyeong), rapeseed flowers and blue barley bloom from March to May, followed by buckwheat flowers and sunflowers from June to September, providing refreshing sights for tourists and presenting new possibilities for the ‘fusion of scenic agriculture and tourism.’

Park Sang-jin, head of the Convention and Tourism Industry Division, said, “As a result of discovering and actively marketing content that utilizes the charm of Pohang, the number of tourists visiting the region is increasing. We will do our best to surpass the limitations of existing tourism and accelerate attracting specialized tourists by integrating nature, history, culture, and festivals to achieve the goal of becoming a 10 million tourist city.”

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