Will the 'Business Extension' Asian Food Culture Street Deliver Results This Time?

Gwangju Dong-gu "Lacks Distinctiveness" Evaluation Overcoming Challenges

Business Direction Reset Considering Entertainment District

Expansion of Dongmyeong-dong Area Under Expert Review

The 'Asia Food Culture District Development Project' in Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City has come under evaluation. Although there were plans to terminate the project after failing to achieve significant results over the past decade, it has been extended for another five years. This is effectively a declaration of a re-challenge.

The project faces the challenge of shedding the negative label of lacking 'distinctiveness' as a food-specialized street, which has been unable to escape its existing image as an entertainment district, and must now generate economic and cultural value.

According to Dong-gu on the 18th, the Asia Food Culture District Development Project mainly aims to provide various cultural experience opportunities by promoting the opening of Asian restaurants and hosting related festivals in the area around the old city hall (approximately 83,410㎡).

The total project cost is 14.5 billion KRW (6.9 billion KRW from the national government, 3.8 billion KRW from the city, and 3.8 billion KRW from the district), with an annual budget expenditure ranging from 500 million to 2 billion KRW.

The project period was from 2014 until this year but has been extended to 2028 following the revision of the Special Act on the Creation of Asia Culture-Centered Cities.

Despite long-term efforts to develop a specialized street, meaningful results have not been achieved due to the surrounding commercial district's decline and reduced dining-out demand caused by COVID-19.

There is also an analysis that, given the commercial district's characteristics where Hongdae club culture coexists, it is difficult for businesses mainly targeting lunch sales, such as Vietnamese pho restaurants, to become 'successful startups.'

For example, Dong-gu attracted 15 stores selling foods from various countries such as India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines in five rounds from 2018 to 2021.

However, 10 of these stores closed within a short period. Restaurants that started with support covering up to 50% of interior and rental costs reportedly closed two years after the support period ended, citing management difficulties.

Learning from past experiences, Dong-gu has reset the project direction and started a new plan.

They plan to recruit unique restaurants considering the Chungjang-ro commercial district's characteristic of having more foot traffic at night than during the day.

Among prospective entrepreneurs receiving support such as rent subsidies from Dong-gu, while previously the focus was on lunch and dinner sales from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., now there is a strong intention to change menu composition and serve customers from afternoon until dawn.

Although the 6th recruitment of Asian restaurant startups is currently underway, they see competitiveness in restaurants like yakiniku, a meat dish enjoyed by Japanese people of all ages and genders.

Prospective stores planning to sell rice balls as their main menu also intend to offer gukbap (soup with rice) and alcoholic beverages together. This is to actively utilize the commercial district, which has relatively abundant foot traffic at night.

To respond to changed startup trends and promote effective project implementation, the project area is also being considered for expansion beyond the old city hall intersection to include Chungjang-ro and Dongmyeong-dong.

To this end, a 200 million KRW budget will be invested early next year to conduct a research service for revitalizing the Asia Food Culture District.

A district official stated, "We plan to support consulting and marketing to discover competitive core stores," adding, "The food workshop (Asia Cuisine Class), where people can experience Asian food and culture, is receiving positive responses, and we will continue to attract food culture festivals to increase the influx of visitors."

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