Suncheon City Shakes South Korea with Gardens

Box Office Buzz Continues Even After Surpassing 8 Million Viewers

The ‘2023 Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo’ held in Suncheon, Jeollanam-do, has achieved its target of 8 million visitors just 190 days after opening, rewriting the history of successful international expos.

At the opening ceremony, President Yoon Seok-yeol promised full support, saying, “If local regions could be like Suncheon, there would be no need for the central government to hold authority.” Following this, nationwide attention focused on the garden expo, and Suncheon’s case, which transformed the cityscape with gardens in a short period and delivered a profound impact to South Korea, became a benchmark for the entire country.

Vehicles are fully parked in the expanded Pungdeokdeul parking lot in preparation for the expo.
Photo by Suncheon City

This halo effect even attracted bold investments from corporations and the government.

How was this possible in less than seven months? To commemorate surpassing 8 million visitors, we look into the unprecedented achievements of the garden expo, its secrets, and the future of Suncheon beyond the gardens.

▶ Early achievement of visitor and revenue targets, with major corporations and government investing due to attractive living conditions

The garden expo, which aimed for 8 million visitors and 25.3 billion KRW in revenue, reached the revenue target of 25.3 billion KRW just 128 days after opening, and as of October 9, secured 31.6 billion KRW, achieving 124% of the goal. Cumulative visitors also rapidly increased, reaching 1 million in 12 days and 2 million in 23 days.

Although the unusually long heatwave and monsoon season this year temporarily slowed the pace, 1 million visitors came during the six-day Chuseok holiday, leading to the remarkable achievement of 8 million cumulative visitors by October 7.

In just half a year, one in six South Koreans visited Suncheon.

The influx of over 8 million consumers brought a fresh breeze to the downtown commercial districts. Within the expo site, a win-win model was created with 35 revenue-generating facilities involving local small business owners, while visitors spread not only to the national garden’s nearby commercial areas but also to the old downtown, where restaurants frequently posted signs indicating early closure due to running out of ingredients. The economic effects of the expo even penetrated neighboring cities.

Gwangyang City and Boseong County promptly operated city buses passing through the garden expo site, and Yeosu prepared a comprehensive tourism countermeasure team for the expo.

As a result, visitors to Yeosu, Gwangyang, Boseong, Gurye, and Goheung increased by an average of over 10 percentage points compared to last year, demonstrating that the garden expo effectively generated a trickle-down effect.

Major corporations also began to flock in. Leading companies such as Hanwha Aerospace, POSCO Wide, and POSCO Lithium Solutions, attracted by Suncheon’s excellent living conditions, were the first to decide on investment and attraction.

In response, the government reciprocated. Following the selection of major industrial complexes in Suncheon as competitive base industrial complex projects worth 600 billion KRW, Suncheon National University was the only institution in Jeollanam-do to be listed on the preliminary list of 30 Glocal Universities.

Upon final designation, it will receive over 100 billion KRW in funding over five years. The animation cluster project, which will lead Suncheon after the expo, has also secured a budget of 200 billion KRW and is progressing smoothly.

The Korea Institute for International Economic Policy initially estimated that the 2023 Garden Expo would generate a production inducement effect of 1.5926 trillion KRW, create 25,149 jobs, and induce a value-added effect of 715.6 billion KRW. However, considering the halo effects such as corporate and government investments and city brand enhancement beyond the expo’s direct achievements, these figures are expected to increase.

▶ Behind the unprecedented success shone the perfect trinity of citizens, public officials, and the mayor

More important than visible numerical achievements are the sincere responses from visitors, such as “It is more complete than any garden in Europe” and “It was so satisfying that there was no need to travel abroad during Chuseok.”

Suncheon created gardens over an enormous area of 193 hectares, equivalent to 234 soccer fields, setting the standard for a clear and bright green city that citizens desire in the era of $30,000 income, sparking a nationwide ‘Learn from Suncheon’ craze among numerous leaders contemplating the future of Korean cities.

Over 480 institutions and organizations nationwide, as well as major local governments such as Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and Busan, and influential politicians, have eagerly visited the gardens, declaring garden cities, designating national gardens, and competing to host garden expos.

Requests for lectures on the ‘trade secret’ that enabled Suncheon to transform the cityscape with gardens and shake South Korea poured in.

Since May, Mayor Noh has lectured on Suncheon’s innovative case at the Seoul ‘Future Seoul Morning Lecture’?the first basic local government head to do so?as well as at national mayor, county governor, and district head forestry workshops, the Local Autonomy Academic Conference, and Yonhap News TV economic forums.

Through various lectures and interviews, Mayor Noh has consistently emphasized the power of the ‘trinity.’

He explained, “For a city to change, a leader who presents a future vision is necessary. If a leader who wants to regress is elected, the city will decline.

Competent public officials who can realize the presented vision are also essential.

However, even with these two, without dignified citizens as a sufficient condition, the city cannot change. Suncheon had a perfect trinity of citizens, public officials, and the mayor.”

In fact, when Mayor Noh proposed ‘Green Island’ as an axis connecting the national garden and downtown and as a symbolic space where people are valued over cars while preparing for the 2023 expo, the organizing committee staff devised a method to plant grass without removing the asphalt road, greatly reducing air pollution and costs.

Suncheon citizens also united for the expo’s success.

Although major roads leading to the city outskirts were controlled, they endured the inconvenience for revolutionary urban change.

Moreover, in addition to 2 billion KRW in citizen donations, over 4,200 citizens including volunteers, guides, first-class planners, and exemplary drivers devoted themselves throughout the expo site, making this event one where citizen participation shone brighter than ever.

▶ From garden creation to excellent operational systems, from imitating cities to creative and exporting cities

The 2023 Garden Expo received praise from experts for creating gardens that break away from Japanese or European garden design styles and are tailored to Korean sensibilities.

Ten years ago, when there was no experience with garden expos, Suncheon merely imitated overseas cases. However, Mayor Noh, judging that the accumulated know-how had reached a level to create a unique garden model, personally engaged in design with staff without a separate chief gardener.

As a result, unique contents not found even in advanced garden countries were created, such as Green Island, which transformed a road into a garden; Ocheon Green Plaza, where a detention basin became a green lawn plaza; the Garden Dream, the first electric battery-operated garden vehicle in Korea; and Garden Stay, where visitors can spend a night in the garden.

The AIPH (International Association of Horticultural Producers, President Leonardo Capitani), the organization overseeing the garden expo, held its 75th regular general meeting in Suncheon last September, inspected the expo site, and requested Mayor Noh to share Suncheon’s know-how with the world at the Qatar general meeting next spring.

The excellent operational system, free from traffic congestion, safety accidents, street vendors, and overcharging, also attracted attention.

Even on days when 210,000 visitors flooded in as if an entire small city had been relocated, no traffic chaos occurred, thanks to a comprehensive effort combining a smart control system using cutting-edge ICT equipment, ample parking spaces, adjustments to city bus routes, shuttle bus operations, and citizens’ voluntary vehicle restriction campaigns.

In August, officials from Saudi Arabia’s equivalent of Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety visited the garden expo site to learn these operational know-how, and the organizing committee actively shared safety management methods using people counting systems, safety drones, and wearable CCTV.

From garden creation to event operation, Suncheon, which struggled to imitate European gardens and cases just 10 years ago, has become a city that exports content and know-how overseas in just a decade.

▶ 20 days left until closing, the peak wetlands and autumn gardens will continue to inspire until the end

Although the visitor target has been achieved, Suncheon Bay, with its endlessly spreading silver reeds and the flock dance of hooded cranes, and the national garden, blooming with tens of millions of chrysanthemums and cosmos, remain bustling. To see the peak autumn gardens, an average of 100,000 visitors per day visit the garden expo site in October.

The organizing committee plans to provide rich memories by preparing various cultural performances and large-scale events until just before the closing.

The ‘1st Namdo Film Festival,’ jointly hosted by Suncheon City and Jeollanam-do, will be held at Ocheon Green Plaza for four days starting from the 11th. During this period, guitarist Park Joo-won and the band Kang San-e will perform music that harmonizes with the autumn of Namdo.

On the 27th and 28th, the ‘Youth Mic’ festival will be held on the plaza stage, featuring 11 performance teams and a special performance by the hip-hop group Epik High.

Additionally, from the 12th, the ‘2023 International Agricultural Expo’ will be held around the Ecological Culture Education Center near the garden expo site, and from the 13th, the ‘104th National Sports Festival’ will take place at 70 venues in Jeollanam-do, attracting numerous farmers, athletes, and sports fans nationwide to visit the gardens.

The garden expo closing ceremony will be held on the 31st under the theme ‘A New Beginning, The High.’ Before the closing event, the organizing committee and Suncheon City plan a grand festival for Suncheon citizens who gathered energy from the successful expo opening to closing, preparing generational participatory programs and recreation such as children’s musicals and hanbok fashion shows with Suncheon City.

The official closing event, continuing from the afternoon, will review the achievements of the 214-day garden expo and share the future vision for Suncheon.

▶ “We do not dream of becoming a big city...” Suncheon beyond gardens, gardens become the stage again!

Mayor Noh Kwan-gyu’s next goal is to make Suncheon a city that South Korea can proudly present to the world. Mayor Noh, who has consistently emphasized that the garden expo is not a goal but a ‘means,’ chose animation, a smokeless eco-friendly industry, as the post-expo utilization plan.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the OTT platform market has rapidly expanded, and the status of K-content has reached a global level. The plan is to steadily nurture the high value-added cultural content industry and create a completely new type of city.

Suncheon plans to apply animation, which has limitless expansion potential including movies, music, characters, and parades, onto the perfectly established garden stage, creating a continuous demand base and opening infinite possibilities for local youth.

In September, Mayor Noh visited Japan to observe the Ghibli Park, which transformed part of a world expo site into an animation theme park, and announced plans to pursue designation as a ‘K-Cultural Content Industry Special Zone’ under the tentative name of Opportunity Development Special Zone.

Mayor Noh explained Suncheon’s future vision, saying, “Suncheon neither dreams of becoming a big city nor imitates one. Like the garden expo, if our city finds what it can do well, focuses properly, and invests, the one-polar system centered on the metropolitan area that creates all sorts of side effects will definitely change the Korean peninsula’s landscape.”

Mayor Noh plans to share more concrete directions with citizens and external parties at the city information session starting on the 11th.

Suncheon = Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Lee Yeon-kyung hss79@asiae.co.kr

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