Jinju City Unveils Strategy to Enhance Global Competitiveness of Namgang Yudeung Festival

Aiming for 10,000 Foreign Visitors
Enhancing Stay-Type Tourism and Customized Overseas Marketing

Jinju City in South Gyeongsang Province has unveiled its global expansion strategy to develop the Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival, one of Korea's representative festivals, into a world-class event.

On May 18, Jinju City participated in the "2026 Global Festival Joint Planning Committee Launch Ceremony" hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Seoul, where it presented its strategies and vision for boosting the Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival as a global tourism attraction.

At the event, the head of Jinju City's Tourism Promotion and Festival Team stated, "The Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival, held under the theme 'River of History, Embracing Peace,' proved its competitiveness as a stay-type festival with around 1.6 million visitors last year. Currently, about 5,000 foreign visitors attend the festival, but we plan to increase this number to 10,000 this year and sustain further growth." The city will implement three core strategies to elevate the festival to a global level.

First, Jinju City will establish an inclusive global support system to eliminate language barriers. The existing Korean-language festival application will be transformed into a multilingual integrated platform, and new features such as a GPS-based real-time guidance service and multilingual kiosk integration will be introduced.

[Photo by Jinju City] The night view of the Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival adorned with dazzling lanterns and a drone light show. Various lantern exhibitions, water lanterns, and drone performances around Namgang River and Jinju Fortress captivate the footsteps of many tourists.

Additionally, Jinju City plans to operate exclusive lounges and companion guide services for foreign tourists to enhance visitor convenience and increase satisfaction during their stay.

The second strategy is to develop interconnected, stay-type tourism products throughout the Gyeongnam region. By linking the Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival with major October festivals such as the Sancheong Herbal Medicine Festival and the Haman Nakhwa Nori, Jinju City aims to create a wide-area tourism belt and expand demand for extended stays. To this end, Jinju City signed a regional tourism activation agreement with neighboring local governments in April.

The third strategy focuses on strengthening customized overseas promotion and targeted marketing for each country. Jinju City is in discussions with inbound travel agencies specializing in markets such as Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam to attract group tourists and will also promote the festival to free independent travelers (FIT) by partnering with global online travel agencies (OTAs).

Starting in June, Jinju City will launch briefing sessions for inbound travel industry stakeholders and begin developing specialized tourism products. In July and August, the city will carry out local promotions in partnership with global OTAs, and in September, it will organize influencer fam tours and operate SNS promotion teams composed of foreigners residing in Korea, thereby ramping up pre-event marketing efforts.

In addition, Jinju City has requested cooperation from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization, suggesting nationwide briefing sessions for developing wide-area tourism products and support for global joint promotional marketing through overseas branches at the central government level.

This year's Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival will be held for 16 days from October 3 to 18 in and around Jinju Fortress and the Namgang River.

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