Hapcheon-gun Suspends Discount Sales of ‘Hapcheon Love Gift Certificates’ Due to Early Exhaustion of Support Budget

Hapcheon County Office.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] Hapcheon-gun, Gyeongnam Province will suspend the discount sale of Hapcheon Sarang Gift Certificates as of November 30 due to the early depletion of the discount support budget.

The Hapcheon Sarang Gift Certificate is a local gift certificate that offers a 5-10% discount at the time of purchase and can be used at affiliated stores within Hapcheon-gun.

Since its issuance in 2011, the Hapcheon Sarang Gift Certificate has played a key role in revitalizing the local economy, which was stagnated due to COVID-19.

To promote the Hapcheon Sarang Gift Certificate and alleviate inconvenience for residents, the county introduced a mobile-type gift certificate in 2019, launched a card-type gift certificate in 2021, and expanded the number of gift certificate sales agencies from one to 26 locations across 16 towns and townships.

As a result, demand for the Hapcheon Sarang Gift Certificate rapidly increased, with issuance amounts rising from 2 billion KRW in 2019 to 6 billion KRW in 2020, and 8.9 billion KRW in 2021.

Accordingly, Hapcheon-gun initially planned to issue 9 billion KRW worth of Hapcheon Sarang Gift Certificates in 2022 but raised the target to 12 billion KRW. However, the discount support budget was exhausted early as of November 29, leading to the suspension of discount sales.

The discount sale of Hapcheon Sarang Gift Certificates is scheduled to resume in January 2023, and paper-type gift certificates can still be purchased without a discount after November 29.

Currently, there are about 1,900 affiliated stores for the Hapcheon Sarang Gift Certificate, including supermarkets, gas stations, restaurants, and pharmacies, where the certificates can be used across various industries.