Pursuing a Tourist City with a 'Four Seasons Festival'
Creating a 'Safety + Satisfaction = Stay' Environment
Gyeonggi-do Icheon City is driving forward the full-scale development of a cultural tourism city with the goal of attracting 25 million tourists. This is intended to focus the city’s administrative power on realizing the core policy task of the 8th elected government, which is to create an "attractive and dignified cultural tourism city."
To this end, Icheon City established a 'Tourism Division' in March this year and formulated the 'Icheon City Tourism Development and Activation Comprehensive Plan' in June. Through the newly established Tourism Division, the city plans to provide comprehensive and practical tourism information with timely and periodic promotional systems.
Based on statistical analysis from the Korea Tourism Data Lab showing that major visitors to Icheon reside in nearby regions such as Gyeonggi, Seoul, and Chungbuk, the city plans to strengthen promotions targeting these areas. Additionally, to increase visitors’ length of stay, it will focus on promoting interconnected tourism infrastructure.
The city particularly plans to concentrate its efforts on building 'ceramic tourism' infrastructure, including the construction of a complex cultural center within the Icheon Ceramic Art Village and the creation of the Sagimakgol Pottery Village Street. In fact, the city has actively promoted local ceramic tourism resources by hosting a Ceramic Culture Market from the 5th to the 9th of this month and participating in related exhibitions and fairs in countries such as France and China.
Icheon City’s core vision for the tourism city, called the '3S,' also draws attention. The '3S' stands for creating a Safe & Satisfying tourism environment that encourages visitors to Stay longer in Icheon. To achieve this, the city is currently implementing projects to revitalize walking trails and develop green spaces along the Seongho Lake ring road, among other tourism content improvements.
Furthermore, aiming to become an 'attractive tourism city with festivals held all year round,' Icheon City has created an integrated festival map that allows visitors to view all local festivals at a glance. The map provides practical information, including festival details and nearby cafes and restaurants.
Meanwhile, Icheon City added that it is preparing to participate in the 2024 Open Tourism Site Environment Improvement Contest to build barrier-free tourist sites for tourism-vulnerable groups.
Kim Kyung-hee, Mayor of Icheon City, stated, "We will actively promote tourism development and activation projects to realize an attractive and dignified cultural tourism city."
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