Nurturing "Healing Travel": Ministry Selects Six Key Wellness Tourism Hubs

KRW 450 Million Support Per Site for Regional Tourism Industrialization
Daegu and Busan to Focus on Medical Tourism,
Incheon, Gangwon, and Others to Pursue Wellness Tourism Models

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on March 6 that it has selected six regions—Daegu, Busan, Incheon, Gangwon, Jeonbuk, and Chungbuk—as targets for the "Wellness Tourism Cluster" initiative, aiming to foster local wellness resources such as healing and spas into tourism industries.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced the selection of six wellness tourism cluster regions to promote tourism focused on wellness resources such as regional healing spas. The photo shows Chungbuk, themed around spas. Photo by Chungcheongbuk-do

This project seeks to nurture a high value-added tourism industry by combining medical, healing, and experiential elements. Each selected region will receive KRW 450 million to establish a foundation for industrializing wellness tourism.

The selected regions are categorized by type. Daegu and Busan will focus on medical tourism, while Incheon, Gangwon, Jeonbuk, and Chungbuk will be developed as wellness tourism-centered regions.

Daegu plans to create an "urban medi-wellness tourism city" by integrating the city’s medical infrastructure with wellness resources, aiming to develop more than 60 tourism products over the next three years.

Busan, leveraging its identity as a maritime resort city, will develop tourism products that connect medical and wellness resources by region: the eastern area (hot spring and recuperation tourism), the western area (ecological tourism), and the downtown area (beauty and spa tourism).

The wellness tourism-centered regions will also pursue specialized strategies. Incheon will implement a segmentation strategy for tourists across four areas: medical and beauty, MICE, airport and seaport linkages, and natural healing. The city aims to attract 1.46 million medical and wellness tourists by 2028.

Gangwon will expand long-term stay tourism themed around sleep wellness, utilizing resources in Wonju, Yangyang, Pyeongchang, and Jeongseon.

Jeonbuk plans to establish a wellness tourism model that combines local cultural assets, such as Hanok Village and independent bookstores, with healing food content, including fermented foods.

Chungbuk will promote the inland wellness tourism brand "Blue Wellness," focusing on four cities: Cheongju (spa and beauty), Chungju (meditation), Jecheon (traditional Korean medicine), and Jeungpyeong (forest and nature).

The global wellness industry is estimated to reach approximately USD 6.8 trillion in 2024, with an average annual growth rate of 7.6% projected through 2029.

A representative from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated, "Demand for 'healing travel'—which combines wellness and tourism—is on the rise. We will develop local wellness resources such as nature, medicine, and cuisine into tourism products, and build an industry ecosystem through public-private cooperation."

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