'A World Not Worth Watching!, Yeongyang Full of Worth!'

Korea Tourism Organization Selected for Regional Tourism Innovation 'Ieul Project'

Consortium Network DAY at Subi Byeolbit Camping Site on 15th and 16th

It only reveals its true form when it gets dark. Suddenly, I decide to seek out the darkness.

I want to travel to the dark night sky where starlight and moonlight pour into my face and eyes, and the Milky Way flows like a river, to find dreams and daily life.

O Ji-eun Galaxy Tour Starlight Shower Experience, selected as the best program for three consecutive years in the Korea Tourism Organization's Regional Tourism Innovation Project.

‘Byeoldaneun Yeongyang’ launched a tourism product called “A World Without Stars!, Yeongyang Full of Stars!” centered around the ‘Yeongyang Subi Starlight Camping Site’ in Subi-myeon, Yeongyang-gun, Gyeongbuk, and the Asia’s first International Dark Sky Reserve in the area, which was selected as the best program for three consecutive years in the 2023 Korea Tourism Organization’s Regional Tourism Innovation Project.

This is the first case of a three-year consecutive best selection in the Gyeongbuk region.

The night sky experience tourism program called “A World Without Stars!, Yeongyang Full of Stars!” was first selected in 2021 for the Korea Tourism Organization’s Regional Tourism Innovation Project, and has been developing tourism products using region-specific content and fostering local night sky guides as community-based jobs.

This experience program was branded as the “Remote Milky Way Tour Starlight Shower Experience” in 2022, and from May to November, the product was sold every weekend, attracting over 6,500 people last year who experienced the starlight shower under Yeongyang’s night sky.

Also, in September last year, the “Turn Off the Lights and Look at the Stars Youth STAR-PING School,” a climate crisis response carbon neutrality practice program linking schools and local communities, was launched, with about 1,500 students participating.

This program puts the “tourism” hat on astronomy and targets the 20-40 age group among 5.34 million campers nationwide. It is popular among the MZ generation due to its unique experience and new value creation, including various stories about celestial bodies in the night sky, the starlight shower experience, and taking pictures of one’s own constellations using smartphones, star pointers, and tripods.

‘Byeoldaneun Yeongyang,’ which formed a consortium with Yeongyang-gun, developed and sold the Remote Milky Way Tour Starlight Shower Experience program utilizing the mountain valley’s natural ecological specialized resources of “stars, fireflies, and forests.” The area around Yeongyang International Dark Sky Park, the first designated in Asia, has become the top domestic attraction through the Remote Milky Way Tour.

This year, they plan to produce AR (Augmented Reality) based on the same product using local content. As part of revitalizing nighttime tourism at the International Dark Sky Park, they plan to develop an AR augmented reality app that allows constellation experiences even on cloudy nights and develop it into a Gyeongbuk-style nighttime tourism experiential program.

Furthermore, they aim to expand inbound tourism to attract foreign tourists, comparable to starlight tours in Saipan, Guam, Mongolia, and Japan’s Achi Village.

On the 15th and 16th, a two-day ‘Consortium Project Networking DAY’ will be held at Yeongyang Subi Starlight Camping Site, attended by about 30 people including officials selected for the mountain-industry-academia-research-government cooperation project, consulting advisory committee members, and Korea Tourism Organization staff.

During this Networking DAY, the “2023 Innovation Project” will be introduced, collaboration ideas and networking among project teams will be shared and strengthened, and activities will include the Remote Milky Way Tour Starlight Shower Experience by ‘Byeoldaneun Yeongyang,’ and trekking in the nearby Changbaugol columnar joint forest near the camping site.

Highly Nutritious!

Kwon Handong, CEO of ‘Byeoldaneun Yeongyang,’ said, “The creation of local tourism jobs for night sky guides, local food and drink travel using regional agricultural specialties (wild vegetables, Yeongyang chili peppers, woodworking crafts), and the operation of night sky experience tourism programs have been highly evaluated for greatly contributing to the revitalization of tourism in the northern mountainous areas of Gyeongbuk. We plan to establish ourselves as a specialized night sky travel business in the future.”