Imsil-gun Puts Full Effort into Establishing Fair Tourism in Tourism Trends

[Imsil=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Nosik] Imsil-gun, Jeonbuk, is actively working to establish fair tourism, a sustainable tourism trend that unites tourists, residents, and nature.

According to the county on the 16th, as part of the Rural New Vitality Plus Project, education to train fair tourism planners has been promoted since last year to establish fair tourism, a post-COVID-19 tourism trend, in the region.

Imsil-gun has been promoting fair tourism planner training education since last year.
[Photo by Imsil-gun]

The county produced 20 and 15 graduates respectively through introductory and advanced courses.

Fair tourism means that tourists respect the lives and cultures of local residents, preserve the natural environment, and engage in sustainable tourism through fair transactions in the relationship among tourists, local residents, tourism businesses, and the natural environment.

Earlier, the county has been promoting a startup course from this month to help the 15 final graduates of fair tourism planners trained through last year’s education with fair tourism entrepreneurship and job creation.

Subsequently, an incubating consulting process to establish actual startup companies will be promoted.

A research project to establish the ‘Imsil-gun Fair Tourism Activation Strategy,’ which presents a step-by-step roadmap to fully establish fair tourism in the region, is also underway.

Attention is focused on whether the strategy establishment can change the region’s tourism paradigm along with training fair tourism agents.

In fact, in other regions, fair tourism is presented as a core strategy of the local tourism industry, and there are cases where fair tourism products are offered as return gifts for the nationwide ‘Hometown Love Donation System’ implemented since January this year.

If fair tourism is properly established, it is expected to greatly contribute to revitalizing the local economy, creating jobs, and responding to population decline along with the Hometown Love Donation System.

A trainee who participated in the education said, “After practicing fair tourism, I got to know more about Imsil’s major tourist attractions and learned that there are various hidden spots and attractions I did not know about,” adding, “It was a valuable time to directly look into the lives of local residents.”

County Governor Shim Min said, “Through this education course, we will discover hidden attractions in the county and successfully establish fair tourism together with local residents,” and added, “We will continuously collaborate with the county and the promotion team to leap toward ten million tourists to Imsil, focusing on major tourist sites such as Okjeongho, Cheese Theme Park, Seongsusan, Uigyeon Tourist Site, and Saseondae.”

Imsil=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Nosik baekok@asiae.co.kr