Wando-gun Wins K-City Category at Brand Awards

Published 24 Jan.2024 16:16(KST)

Highly Rated for Brand Image Originality and Brand Management Vision and Strategy

Wando County, Jeollanam-do (Governor Shin Woo-cheol) received the Institutional Award in the ‘K-City (Marine Healing City)’ category at the 2024 K-Brand Awards held on the 24th at The Plaza Hotel in Seoul.

According to the county, the ‘K-Brand Awards,’ hosted by TV Chosun and sponsored by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, recognize outstanding content, companies, and institutions that have contributed to enhancing industrial competitiveness and national economic development through creative and advanced brands.

Wando County won the Institutional Award in the ‘K-City’ category, receiving high evaluations for the originality of the ‘Marine Healing Wando’ brand image, brand management vision, and strategy.

(On the right) Shin Woo-cheol, Wando County Governor, is receiving the Institutional Award in the 'K-City (Marine Healing City)' category at the 2024 K-Brand Awards and posing for a commemorative photo.
[Photo by Wando County]

The ‘Marine Healing Wando’ brand has established itself as a representative brand of Korea’s healing industry following the opening of the Wando Marine Healing Center in November last year, the first of its kind in the country, marking the dawn of the marine healing industry.

Marine healing is a health promotion activity that heals the mind and body by utilizing a clean marine environment and abundant marine resources.

Wando County is fostering the marine healing industry as a future food industry for the next 100 years and has been developing and utilizing the ‘Marine Healing Wando’ brand since 2017 to strengthen the competitiveness of the marine healing industry.

Currently, public facilities such as the Marine Healing Center, Marine Climate Healing Center, Marine Culture Healing Center, Yaksan Coastal Healing Forest, and Cheongsan Marine Healing Park are actively operating.

In particular, the Wando Marine Healing Center is equipped with a total of 16 healing therapy facilities, including a thalassotherapy pool, meditation pool, and seaweed foam therapy room. Within just over two months of its opening, it attracted about 10,000 visitors, and user satisfaction was high.

As marine healing becomes more active, it is expected not only to lead healthy living in South Korea but also to invigorate the local economy through job and income creation, population inflow, and the co-growth of agriculture, fisheries, and livestock industries.

Governor Shin Woo-cheol said, “I am honored that ‘Marine Healing Wando,’ the brand of our county’s key project, the marine healing industry, has been proven to be the best brand that can strengthen the competitiveness of Korea’s healing industry.”

He added, “By providing Wando’s unique marine healing services utilizing comparative advantage resources, our county will leap forward as a wellness marine tourism city and open the era of 10 million tourists.”