Work and Rest, Busan Ranked No.1 for Work-Life Balance... Opening of 'Workation Hub Center'

work＋vacation New Trend Workation (workation)

Opening Ceremony Held at Asti Hotel 24th Floor on the 7th at 4:30 PM

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Busan City will hold the opening ceremony of the ‘Busan Workation Hub Center’ for a city where work, life, and play are harmonized on the 24th floor of Asti Hotel near Busan Station at 4:30 PM on the 7th.

At the opening ceremony, attendees will include Kim Kyunghoon, CEO of Google Korea, the first participating company in the Busan-style workation, Jung Eungseop, CEO of Slack, Ko Hoon, CEO of MediaZen, Lee Juwan, CEO of Megazone Cloud, as well as National Assembly member Hwang Bo Seunghee, City Council member Kang Cheolho, Lee Hakju, Director of the National Tourism Headquarters at Korea Tourism Organization, and Jo Jin-ho, Chairman of Asti.

The ceremony will proceed with a signing ceremony by the first participating companies that expressed their intention to join the Busan-style workation, an investment briefing session for tourism companies, and a fam tour for 25 companies that completed prior registration.

Notably, at the signing ceremony, global companies leading the economy such as Google and Slack decided to participate in the Busan workation, attracted by the charm of Busan.

After the signing ceremony, Kenji Sunada, CEO of Kabuku Style, which has grown into Japan’s largest workation platform, will discuss operational know-how and workation projects that Busan and Japan can collaborate on.

Following this, at the investment briefing session, Lee Hyunsong, CEO of Smart Study Ventures, the management company of the regional tourism industry development fund established last year, will give a lecture including not only tourism businesses within Busan but also companies outside the region.

Additionally, a fam tour will be held over two days from February 7 to 8 for 25 companies that made prior reservations. It will provide a workation experience for HR managers and others from companies considering participation, aiming to promote marketing and encourage participation from companies in the metropolitan area.

A base center located on the top floor of Asti Hotel, boasting an open and unobstructed view.

The Busan-style workation project was selected last year as a 6 billion KRW investment project from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s Regional Extinction Response Fund. It is currently operating hub centers and satellite centers focusing on three population-declining areas (Dong-gu, Seo-gu, Yeongdo-gu) and two population-extinction areas (Jung-gu, Geumjeong-gu) within Busan.

Furthermore, partner centers have been established throughout Busan to support workspaces as well as provide accommodation and various tourism contents, aiming to revitalize the local economy by increasing the living population and, in the long term, attract companies from outside the region.

The ‘Busan Workation Hub Center’ is located on the 24th floor of Asti Hotel, covering an area of 708.5㎡, and consists of 50 work seats, 4 video/phone booths, meeting rooms, and an event lounge. This reflects the result of a demand survey conducted last May targeting domestic companies, which prioritized workspace construction as the top requirement. The differentiated workspace infrastructure is a strength of the ‘Busan-style’ workation compared to other regions.

Located on the top floor of Busan Station’s Asti Hotel with an open view, the hub center includes ▲ a ‘workspace’ composed of immersive seats focused on individual work and meeting-style seats for collaboration ▲ independent ‘phone booths’ ▲ ‘meeting rooms’ equipped for video conferencing ▲ an ‘event lounge’ for networking meetups among participants ▲ and ‘convenience spaces.’ It also provides a dedicated internet network with a firewall, ensuring an optimized workation space with no inconvenience for work.

'Busan Workation Hub Center' Sea View.

The Busan workation hub and satellite centers are open daily except weekends and public holidays, with operating hours from 8 AM to 8 PM on weekdays. All information and reservations related to the Busan-style workation are available through a mobile-linked integrated platform.

Mayor Park Hyungjun said, “Busan is an ideal place for workation with its natural environment and metropolitan infrastructure coexisting. I hope participants can feel the balance of work, life, and rest in a place where the sea and nature blend, and that the positive and creative energy of each participant will lead to the long-term competitiveness of participating companies. Please do not forget to invest in Busan through that competitiveness.”