[1st Anniversary of Mayor Kang Gijeong of Gwangju in the 8th Civil Term]⑧ Accelerating the Leap to a 'Honey Fun City'

Hyundai and Shinsegae Participate in Attracting Cultural Tourism Anchor Facility 'Complex Shopping Mall'

Developing New Storytelling-Based Content Including Modern History Cultural Tourism Road

Gwangju Biennale Gains Domestic and Internation

‘Kkuljaem City Gwangju’ is one of the representative pledges of Gwangju City under the 8th local government administration. It reflects Mayor Kang Gi-jung’s vision to create a ‘kkuljaem city’ and achieve ‘Gwangju, the city of shining opportunities for my☆tomorrow.’

To this end, Gwangju City has launched the ‘8th Local Government Gwangju Tourism Innovation Project.’ This project is being promoted with the vision of ‘an exciting tourism city full of fun and vitality, Gwangju,’ aiming to reach 30 million urban users by 2026, bringing greater change and innovation to Gwangju tourism.

Three main strategies have been presented: city branding centered on seasonal representative festivals and strengthening tourism competitiveness linked to MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions); development of tourism content and new tourist destinations with the National Asia Culture Center as a hub; and development and marketing of tourism products linking the city brand (Ui-hyang, Ye-hyang, Mi-hyang) with local alleyway commercial districts.

Gwangju Street Culture Festa Battle Lineup 8.
[Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City]

▲ Establishment of new tourism infrastructure such as complex shopping malls

The core of Gwangju’s ‘kkuljaem city’ initiative is attracting complex shopping malls, the Yeongsan River and Hwangryong River Y-Project, and new tourism infrastructure such as the modern historical and cultural tourism road.

The project that excites the hearts of Gwangju citizens is the ‘attraction of complex shopping malls.’ Complex shopping malls are key cultural tourism anchor facilities essential to achieving 30 million urban users. They are considered indispensable items to transform the city from a ‘no-fun city’ to a ‘kkuljaem city.’

Currently, two distribution companies have expressed interest in attracting complex shopping malls. Candidate sites include Eodeungsan Tourism Complex and the former Jeonbang and Ilsin Textile sites, elevating this to one of the largest projects in Gwangju’s history.

The ‘Grand Starfield Gwangju’ complex shopping mall linked with the development of Eodeungsan Tourism Complex will proceed with a third-party bidding process around mid-July, after the appropriateness review of the business proposal submitted by the developer Shinsegae Property is completed.

The Hyundai Department Store Group’s ‘The Hyundai Gwangju,’ which proposes part of the former Jeonbang and Ilsin Textile sites as a candidate location for a complex shopping mall, plans to complete preliminary negotiations for urban planning changes for the entire former Jeonbang and Ilsin Textile sites within July. Subsequently, it will announce the results of legal, administrative, and technical preliminary reviews of the complex shopping mall business plan.

The Yeongsan River and Hwangryong River Y-Project is expected to present a concrete roadmap by the end of August, following the completion of the basic plan for cultural tourism resource facility construction.

▲ Infusing stories into local resources

Tourism content based on storytelling will also be strengthened.

Gwangju City is promoting a tourism resource project to build a ‘modern historical and cultural tourism road’ centered on the National Asia Culture Center (ACC) exchange zone as a new signature tourist destination.

This project aims to rediscover the cultural, artistic, and Christian values scattered in Yangnim-dong, with the concept of a time travel meeting Gwangju’s past, present, and future. Yangnim-dong, Sajik-dong, the National Asia Culture Center, and Dongmyeong-dong will be developed into storytelling-based landmark tourist sites.

Additionally, historical, cultural, and ecological tourism resources scattered throughout the region will be developed into distinctive and differentiated tourism content through comprehensive storytelling.

Places with Gwangju’s unique identity such as the Yeongsan River, Yangnim-dong, Mangwol-dong, and the National Asia Culture Center (ACC) will serve as the four main axes of storytelling. Various story resources connected to each location will be discovered through public contests. The discovered story content will be woven into tourism products with Gwangju’s unique charm and promoted through fam tours and social networking services (SNS).

▲ Enjoying culture and arts in everyday life

Gwangju’s establishment as a ‘cultural city’ owes much to the Gwangju Biennale. Founded in 1995, the Gwangju Biennale quickly established its status as a world-class art festival by presenting new attempts and discourses.

This year, marking its 14th edition, the promotional video using ‘Vienna sausage’ attracted the attention of the MZ generation even before the opening. The main exhibition, held under the theme ‘Soft and Tender Like Water,’ also received attention, and the pavilion featuring nine countries including Canada, China, France, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and Ukraine, organized as a related event, was highly praised.

The ‘2023 Gwangju Street Culture Festa,’ planned as a festival showcasing street dance, a representative culture of the MZ generation, was held from the 9th to the 11th, simultaneously presenting Battle Lineup 8 and SONS@Fringe, gaining popularity. Notably, over 12,000 participants from home and abroad attended, and tickets sold out in the shortest time, receiving explosive responses.

The citizen-participatory street festival ‘Fringe Festival’ aims to return to its original color as a ‘street arts festival’ expressing social issues through art this year. It will showcase carefully selected excellent performances from both domestic and overseas artists to audiences. The event will be held from October 20 to 22 around the National Asia Culture Center.

▲ Construction of tourism and social infrastructure

Gwangju City is also actively working on building tourism and social infrastructure to attract domestic and international tourists to Gwangju.

Since March, a collaborative system has been activated to discover national funding projects related to the ‘Gwangju complex shopping mall attraction,’ a presidential pledge and the region’s biggest issue. Projects for tourism infrastructure development such as the construction of a representative opera house in the southwestern region of the country, and the creation of a pedestrian garden overbridge connecting the Municipal Art Museum and Biennale Exhibition Hall have been identified.

Additionally, requests for national support for road and transportation social infrastructure expansion projects to prepare for increased population flow are being actively pursued. These include improvements to the congested road from Bitgoeul-daero to Gwangcheon 2 Bridge, undergrounding of the Gwangju-Daegu Dalbit High-Speed Railway (Gwangju Line section), expansion of pedestrian infrastructure linking Eodeungsan to Hwangryong River Jangnok Wetlands, and expansion of the Honam Expressway between Gwangju and Gimje.

With six projects worth 3.7 trillion won in national funding being actively promoted under national-level support, it is expected that the creation of ‘Kkuljaem City’ Gwangju will accelerate.

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