Visitors to Local Festivals Increase by 20% Compared to Pre-COVID Levels

Big Data Analysis of Visitors to 21 Cultural Tourism Festivals
Estimated Average Economic Impact of 8.5 Billion KRW

Local festivals, which had been stagnant due to the impact of COVID-19, have begun to recover.

Panoramic view of Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon.
Photo by Asia Economy DB

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization announced the '2022 Cultural Tourism Festival Big Data Analysis' on the 7th. According to the data, the total number of visitors to 21 cultural tourism festivals held last year was approximately 3.37 million, a 19.7% increase compared to 2.82 million in 2019. The average daily spending per visitor during the festival period also increased by 23.5%.

The economic ripple effect of the 21 festivals was analyzed to be between 176.8 billion and 182 billion KRW, with an employment inducement effect of about 258 people and a job creation effect of about 157 people. The average ripple effect per festival was 8.5 billion KRW, with employment inducement of 12 people and job creation of 7 people.

The Korea Tourism Organization stated that this data analysis "diagnosed the current status of the festival industry returning to normal after three years due to COVID-19" and explained that it served as an opportunity to overcome the lack of objective statistics for establishing regional festival development strategies.

This data was obtained by analyzing big data from Korea Tourism Data Lab, including mobile telecommunications (KT), credit cards (Shinhan, BC), navigation (T-MAP), and public data. The festivals surveyed included Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival, Gangneung Coffee Festival, Imsil N Cheese Festival, and Sunchang Jangryu Festival.

Park Daeyoung, head of the Regional Tourism Content Team at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, "This year, we plan to expand big data analysis to cover all cultural tourism festivals and continue to improve the analysis model," adding, "We will strive to contribute to the development of the regional festival industry through big data utilization education for local government festival managers."