‘Global Workation City Busan’ ... Launching Demand Preemption Marketing

On the 5th, Wakayama Prefectural Office in Japan and Busan City sign Workation MOU with Wakayama Prefecture

On the 7th, linked with Startup Conference... '2023 Workation Ecosystem Forum' held

Busan City is embarking on building the city brand of "Busan, a great city to work and live in" as a truly "global workation city"!

Considering the increasing demand for workations in Japan, the city is conducting various marketing activities to secure a leading position in the global workation market.

In July 2020, the Japanese government proposed "workation" as a new travel style at the Tourism Strategy Implementation Promotion Meeting and has been promoting it as part of its work style reform policies led by the government.

Major Japanese companies such as Unilever Japan and Yahoo Japan have officially introduced workation systems to enhance employee welfare, and local governments like Wakayama Prefecture are actively utilizing it as a means to revitalize the regional economy by creating related populations.

As such, the workation market size in Japan is expected to grow from 69.9 billion yen in 2020 to 362.2 billion yen in 2025, a fivefold increase.

This marketing activity was prepared to attract the increasing workation demand in Japan to Busan and pioneer the global workation market.

First, from September 4 to 5, the city visited Wakayama Prefecture, signed a "Mutual Cooperation Agreement for Leading and Revitalizing Workation Culture" with Wakayama Prefecture, and toured representative workation facilities in Shirahama Town.

The signing ceremony took place at 10 a.m. on the 5th at the Wakayama Prefectural Office, attended by Byeong-yoon Ahn, Deputy Mayor of Busan, the Governor and Vice Governor of Wakayama Prefecture, and the Consul General of Osaka.

This agreement was realized through active mediation by the Osaka Consulate General (Consul General Kim Hyung-jun) following Busan City's proposal last year.

Wakayama Prefecture has been promoting workation projects since 2017, before the government-level encouragement, and is a local government leading workation initiatives in Japan based on excellent accessibility such as Kansai Airport and Shirahama Airport, a network environment enabling work even at the beach, and abundant natural and cultural resources.

In particular, centered on Shirahama Town, well known as a global workation hotspot, Wakayama has attracted satellite centers of ICT major companies from the metropolitan area, possessing years of experience and know-how. Through this agreement, a practical cooperation system is expected to be established to share best practices between the two cities.

Additionally, the "2023 Workation Ecosystem Forum," linked with the global startup conference "BOUNCE 2023," will be held on September 7 at the Busan Workation Hub Center and Asti Hotel Busan.

The forum is composed of various keynote speeches, thematic presentations, and panel discussions by experts from public institutions and industry leaders to share innovative ideas about the workation system.

Notably, the forum will serve as a free exchange platform where representatives from major local governments such as Seoul, Gangwon, and Jeju, which are launching workation projects for the first time, gather to share opinions, and experts and global startups from home and abroad share related trends.

2023 Workation Ecosystem Forum.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun stated, "Workation goes beyond individual work-life balance; the experience of enjoying that space itself can be utilized as a new business city brand strategy," adding, "As a 'global workation leading city,' Busan will continue to secure global workation demand by promoting its strengths and differentiated attractions domestically and internationally in various ways."

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