One Year of Minseon 8th Term in Damyang-gun, Spotlight on 'Namdo Culture Tourism City' Where You Want to Stay

Creating a Day and Night Enjoyable Experience and Stay-Based Tourism Infrastructure

Damyang-eup Old Downtown Infused with Culture and Arts, Connected to Major Tourist Attractions for a Vibrant Space

On the 11th, Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do announced that it is focusing its efforts on attracting 10 million tourists by promoting various policies to realize the core pledge of the 8th local government term, the ‘Namdo Cultural Tourism City.’

To this end, Damyang’s representative festivals, the Bamboo Festival and the Damyang Santa Festival, created a harmonious venue where residents and tourists come together as one.

They also attempted to transform these into stay-type festivals by adding distinctive nighttime content.

In May, the Bamboo Festival, held for the first time in four years, filled the venue with a variety of programs.

By adding sales venues for local agricultural products to increase farmers’ income, it became a local cultural festival linked to residents’ income, loved by both residents and tourists.

As a result, during the six days of the festival, a record-breaking 630,000 people visited Damyang-gun, generating an economic ripple effect of approximately 31 billion KRW.

Additionally, specialized travel products such as ‘Youth Damyang’ targeting young people in the metropolitan area, ‘Hip Place Tour’ using urban regeneration spaces as stages, and ‘Art Tour’ utilizing cultural resources, as well as regionally distinctive tourism products like ‘Traveling in Damyang for a Week’ and ‘SNS Travel Review Event’ attracted about 2,000 stay-type tourists.

Moreover, with 1 billion KRW of national funding secured, a children’s science experience space is being created with the goal of opening this year.

To elevate Damyangho Yongmaru-gil into a premier luxury walking trail, about 12 billion KRW will be invested by 2027 to install a pedestrian bridge connecting Yongmaru-gil and Geumseongsanseong Fortress.

Great care is also being taken in pursuing long-term tourism policies.

From next year, a budget of 70.9 billion KRW has been secured for the ‘Southern Region Wide-area Tourism Development Project’ led by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which will be implemented over ten years.

Currently, basic plans for detailed projects selected as part of the first phase (2024?2027, four years), such as Dam (潭) Tourism Stay and cultural nightscape space production, are being established, with full-scale project commencement planned for next year.

The old downtown area of Damyang-eup is also vibrant with culture and art.

The Damjuda Midam Art District, which opened in February, currently houses 15 buildings with 30 units, operating as various commercial spaces including youth shops and workshops.

Weekly street performances and diverse cultural and artistic events enliven the streets, connecting major tourist sites such as Juknokwon and the old downtown area.

Also, after a year and a half of construction, the Damyang Culture Hall was reborn as a complex cultural space, featuring ▲performance art creation spaces ▲resident participation cultural creation spaces ▲exhibition spaces ▲cultural plazas ▲large performance halls, and more.

Dam Bit Music Hall, completed in April, is located in the Chuseong Stadium area, harmonizing with Juknokwon and Gwanbangjerim, serving as the main stage for the Bamboo Festival and the Namdo International Arts Festival, expanding its role as a performance art hub for residents and a ‘rest’ space for tourists.

Furthermore, various efforts are being made to ensure that tourists can safely enjoy food, an indispensable element of tourism.

Damyang-gun is fostering a clean and high-quality food culture by promoting the use of spoon cases to expand safe restaurants, improving kitchen facilities in small restaurants, and operating a food tourism guide academy.

As a result of these efforts, Damyang-gun was selected as an excellent institution nationwide, receiving high evaluations in the 2023 Food Culture Improvement field performance assessment conducted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

County Governor Lee Byung-no said, “We will create a Damyang-style stay-type tourism city where residents and tourists can be happy together by establishing various experiential and stay-type tourism infrastructures utilizing Damyang’s beautiful scenic and cultural resources.”

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