Haenam-gun and Gangjin-gun Join Hands to Create Smart Tourism Cities

Signing of Business Agreement, Joint Establishment of Business Plan, Application for Public Contest

Haenam County signed a business agreement with Gangjin County and a consortium company to create a smart tourism city. (Photo by Haenam County)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun] Haenam County is jointly promoting the creation of a smart tourism city in collaboration with Gangjin County.

According to Haenam County, on the 4th, a 2021 smart tourism city creation service report meeting was held in the multipurpose room of the Culture and Arts Center, and a business agreement was signed with Gangjin County and the consortium companies.

Through the agreement, the two local governments plan to jointly establish a project plan to participate in the smart tourism city creation contest project. Haenam County, Gangjin County, and consortium companies including NextStory (platform, TourPass), Move (smart mobility, linked with KTX), Yanolja (unmanned accommodation system), Excrew (live commerce), TableManager (smart order), and Korea Smart Tourism Association (sales and distribution) will actively strive to participate in the 2021 smart tourism city creation project and promote win-win cooperation with local tourism businesses.

Last year, Haenam and Gangjin signed a business agreement for the mutual development of the tourism industry and were selected for a regional demand-tailored support contest project with a tourism package linking Gosan Yun Seondo and Dasan Jeong Yak-yong.

At the earlier service report meeting, they reviewed the direction for promoting the vision of Haenam-Gangjin as the central city of smart tourism, discussed plans to establish tourism governance connecting Haenam and Gangjin, build wellness-based stay-type tourism content, introduce smart mobility for the first time in small (agricultural and fishing) towns, and establish a smart tourism platform focused on distribution and sales.

The county plans to supplement the report based on the opinions presented at the service report meeting and apply for the contest to the Korea Tourism Organization.

A smart tourism city is a concept that creates a tourism environment where travel is convenient via mobile devices, developing region-specific content by applying advanced technologies related to the 4th Industrial Revolution such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and 5th generation (5G) mobile communications to tourism services.

Haenam County began establishing the 2021 smart tourism city contest project plan in September last year and has reflected various residents' opinions in the plan through workshops and residents' briefings to share information on smart tourism city creation.

Myeong Hyun-gwan, the mayor of Haenam County, stated, “Creating a smart tourism environment in response to new tourism trends such as non-face-to-face, mobile, and individual tourism due to COVID-19 is emerging as a timely issue. We will create a smart tourism environment where everyone nationwide can freely travel Haenam and Gangjin via mobile devices, revitalizing the local economy.”