Hamyang-gun Holds Evaluation Meeting for Hamyang Sansam Festival

Direct Economic Impact of Approximately 11.8 Billion KRW

Gyeongnam Hamyang-gun announced on the 20th that it held the 2023 18th Hamyang Sansam Festival Evaluation Report Meeting at the county office's large conference room, attended by about 70 related personnel.

At the meeting, Jin Byeong-yeong, the county governor, Lee No-tae, chairman of the Hamyang Sansam Festival Committee, Jeong Gwang-seok, chairman of the Planning and Administration Committee of the county council, and Yang In-ho, chairman of the Industry Construction Festival Committee, attended to receive this year’s Sansam Festival evaluation report and discuss future development plans for the festival.

The report meeting began with watching a video compiling the main scenes of the six-day festival held from September 7 to 12, followed by evaluation reports, discussions, and collection of opinions.

Hamyang County is holding the 2023 Hamyang Wild Ginseng Festival evaluation meeting.

According to the evaluation report, this year’s festival was positively assessed for efforts to avoid large tents and stages in consideration of the surrounding scenery to prevent damage to the festival site’s landscape, well-organized festival programs and spatial composition, and provision of accessibility and parking convenience at the venue.

In particular, the economic effect analysis showed that about 100,000 people visited during the festival period (excluding repeat visits), with local residents spending 3.3 billion KRW and external visitors spending 8.5 billion KRW, resulting in approximately 11.8 billion KRW in direct economic effects. Among these, shopping expenses (such as purchases of agricultural specialty products) accounted for the largest portion at 3.6 billion KRW (37%).

It was also agreed that the festival became a communication festival where residents and visitors participated together by introducing new content and various citizen participation programs.

However, challenges to be addressed in the future were presented, such as preparations for accommodating foreign tourists through festival guidance and promotional materials, and measures for more active pre-promotion.

In the subsequent discussion and opinion gathering, in-depth discussions were held on measures regarding the timing and duration of the festival to resolve difficulties in holding the festival caused by typhoons, which have been problematic every year during the festival.

Governor Jin said, “I hope you will gather frank evaluations and opinions for the festival’s leap to become a world-class event,” and added, “I ask the residents to pay more attention to the positive aspects such as the economic effects and the increase in Hamyang-gun’s brand value brought about by the festival rather than negative perceptions of the festival.”

The festival chairman said, “I thank all the residents and related personnel who participated for a successful festival despite difficult conditions,” and added, “We will humbly accept today’s evaluation results and prepare countermeasures for the issues so that next year’s festival can be a more mature and complete program.”