Wando-gun Holds Marine Healing Facility Briefing Session

Pilot Operation of Marine Healing Center in Phases

Development of Healing Tourism Products and Promotion Targeting Groups

Wando-gun, Jeollanam-do, held a session on the 8th at the Lifestyle Culture Center to introduce the ‘Marine Healing Facilities and Program Operation Plan’ to its staff ahead of the completion of the Marine Healing Center, a core facility of the marine healing industry.

An explanation session on the operation plan of the marine healing facility program is being held for Wando County employees.
[Photo by Wando County]

According to the county on the 10th, the session provided an introduction to the 16 therapy rooms within the Marine Healing Center, explained how to use the programs, outlined the operation plans, and detailed the phased pilot operation schedule.

The first floor of the Marine Healing Center offers basic programs that anyone can freely use, while the second floor operates specialized programs for healing specific body parts or purposes.

On the first floor, visitors can receive various water pressure massages such as air bubbles, aqua jets, and neck showers in the largest seawater pool called the Thalasso Pool, and participate in aquatic exercises like aqua aerobics and aqua training.

Additionally, the meditation pool features an underwater sound and video system where visitors can experience floating therapy, effective for pain relief, along with underwater meditation. In the seaweed foam therapy room, participants can experience applying nutrient-rich seaweed foam all over their bodies.

There are also five programs freely available to everyone, including the mud therapy room using natural mud harvested from aging salt fields, and the seawater mist room which helps improve skin and respiratory conditions.

The specialized programs on the second floor are divided into wet therapy rooms using water?such as seawater, seaweed, and mud?and dry therapy rooms that do not use water, after measuring individual health conditions with professional equipment.

The wet therapy programs using seawater include steam showers, Vichy showers, seaweed bath therapy, seawater pools, low-frequency therapy, and seaweed mud wrapping therapy. The dry therapy programs focus on the five senses with color, sound and music, and aroma therapies.

As the final construction of the Marine Healing Center is underway, the county plans to conduct equipment commissioning and a pilot operation lasting about 3 to 4 months after the center’s completion, followed by a grand opening of all marine healing facilities in September with paid services.

During the pilot operation period, feedback from participants in each field will be reflected to analyze strengths and weaknesses, and with the grand opening, the programs will be officially commercialized to offer specialized ‘wellness healing tourism products’ to tourists visiting Wando for marine healing.

The management of marine healing facilities, including the Marine Healing Center, such as facility maintenance and promotion/marketing, will be handled by Wando-gun, while program operations will be outsourced to private companies with qualified and experienced personnel in related fields.

Furthermore, the county plans to develop various healing tourism products linked to tourism resources and actively promote and market by signing MOUs with companies, universities, public institutions, and organizations to operate welfare and education programs for workers.

A county official stated, “Once the Marine Healing Center is fully operational, visible achievements of the marine healing industry, which has been ongoing since 2017, are expected to emerge one by one,” adding, “We will do our best to operate the Marine Healing Center and other facilities stably to revitalize the marine healing industry.”

Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Oh Hwan-ju ohj1358@asiae.co.kr