2024 Yeoju Ogoknaru Festival... 300,000 Visitors and Economic Impact of About 19.7 Billion Won Analyzed

2024 Yeoju Ogoknaru Festival Evaluation Meeting Held
79.3% of Visitors Are Foreign Visitors...54% Revisit Rate for Visitors Visiting More Than Twice

The '2024 Yeoju Ogoknaru Festival' evaluation report meeting was held on the 3rd at the 4th-floor conference room of Yeoju City Hall.

Yeoju City held the evaluation meeting for the '2024 Yeoju Ogoknaru Festival' on the 3rd at the large conference room on the 4th floor of Yeoju City Hall. Photo by Yeoju City

According to Yeoju City on the 9th, the evaluation report meeting was attended by about 30 people, including Vice Mayor Jo Jeong-ah, Lee Soon-yeol, Chairman of the Yeoju Sejong Culture and Tourism Foundation, festival advisory committee members, Yoo Kyung-sook, Director of the World Festival Research Institute, survey agencies, and event officials. The meeting analyzed the festival’s attractions and issues and conducted an evaluation for continuous development to enhance its status as a representative cultural tourism festival of Yeoju and Gyeonggi Province.

According to the visitor satisfaction evaluation service report, the total number of visitors to the '2024 Yeoju Ogoknaru Festival,' held from October 18 to 20 at the Sinreuksa tourist area, was 300,000, and the direct economic effect was estimated at about 19.6 billion KRW.

This result shows a 21% decrease compared to last year’s approximately 270,000 visitors and a direct economic effect of about 24.7 billion KRW. The survey agency predicted that the main reasons were the domestic economic downturn and an increased participation rate of younger generations in the festival.

According to the age group analysis, visitors in their 60s accounted for 24.5%, while the proportion of visitors aged 20 to 50 increased by 26.9% from last year to 68.1%, indicating a higher participation rate of younger generations in the festival.

In particular, the proportion of out-of-town visitors was 65.7% in 2022, 76.6% in 2023, and 79.3% in 2024, revealing that the ratio of out-of-town visitors has been increasing every year. This shows that the festival is recognized as a worthwhile event to visit by out-of-town visitors.

Along with this, 54% of visitors were repeat attendees, and 46% were first-time visitors, indicating that the proportion of people visiting the festival for the first time has also increased.

At the evaluation report meeting, Yoo Kyung-sook, Director of the World Festival Research Institute, presented the development direction for the Yeoju Ogoknaru Festival. She stated that the Yeoju Ogoknaru Festival is growing into the hottest autumn harvest festival nationwide and emphasized the importance of further strengthening it.

To this end, she analyzed future content to be enhanced, including expanding activity programs that increase a sense of accomplishment tailored to the demands of the younger generation in their 20s and 30s, which increased from 9.2% last year to 25.7%, expanding experiential programs that children and parents can enjoy together, and enlarging voluntary photo zones such as lanterns and wish papers.

Lee Soon-yeol, Chairman of the Yeoju Sejong Culture and Tourism Foundation, stated, “We will review the proposals derived from today’s evaluation report meeting in various ways and strive to make the Yeoju Ogoknaru Festival a representative cultural tourism festival of Yeoju City and, further, Gyeonggi Province, as well as a global festival.”

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