Gwangju City Transforms Completely into a 'City Full of Vitality 365 Days a Year'

Sports and Tourism Sector Work Report Meeting... Focus on Leisure, Fun, and Economic Revitalization

Strengthening Sports Marketing with First ACL Entry and World Archery Championships Boom

Pursuing '3 Major Strategies and 9 Key Tasks'... Bri

Gwangju Metropolitan City is set to transform into a "city full of vitality 365 days a year" by blending sports with culture, tourism, and entertainment.

In particular, the city plans to develop content linking the home games of Gwangju FC, which caused a sensation in professional soccer last year, and the traditional professional baseball powerhouse KIA Tigers with local tourism to promote sports tourism. Additionally, Gwangju will engage in international sports marketing by combining the Asia Champions League (ACL) matches, held for the first time in the city, with tourism.

On the 20th, Gwangju City (Mayor Kang Gi-jung) announced that it held the "2024 Sports and Tourism Sector Work Report Meeting" at the city hall's small conference room, attended by Mayor Kang Gi-jung and heads of departments and bureaus.

Under the slogan "Gwangju, a sports tourism city full of vitality 365 days a year," the city announced three major promotion strategies and nine key tasks: ▲ "Sportcation," enjoying sports and vacation together ▲ "Sponomics," revitalizing the economy through sports ▲ "Sportainment," combining sports and entertainment.

The number 365 symbolizes the start of six representative projects blending sports, culture, and tourism from today. The six flagship projects include ▲ Gwangju FC Citizen Soccer Festival and operation of tourism products linked to local festivals during Gwangju home games ▲ participation in the Asia Champions League ▲ boosting the World Archery Championships ▲ opening public sports facilities ▲ creating sportainment spaces, among others.

▶ "Sportcation": Enjoying Sports and Vacation Together

Gwangju City is promoting the "Cultural Outing through the Gwangju FC Citizen Soccer Festival" to enjoy Gwangju all day long as a 365-day sports festival. The Cultural Outing collaborates with local cultural and artistic groups to showcase various regional cultural events at the soccer stadium.

The city expects to create a synergy that promotes the soccer boom and raises awareness of local culture by providing entertainment and attractions to spectators visiting the soccer stadium. The Cultural Outing will begin on March 2, the date of the Gwangju FC home opener.

Additionally, for visitors from other regions coming to watch Gwangju FC and KIA Tigers home games, the city will operate professional sports tour products linked with major Gwangju festivals such as the Gwangju Biennale, Chungjang Festival, and Street Culture Festa.

The products will include short tours utilizing free time before and after games and extended stay tours of one or two nights, attracting sports fans throughout downtown Gwangju.

Gwangju City plans to classify professional and amateur sports competitions into long-stay, family-friendly, and experience-linked types, hosting events such as the National Swimming Championships (June), Amateur Table Tennis Tournament (August), and National Park Golf Tournament (October), combining sports and tourism.

In September, Gwangju will hold its first-ever disabled park golf tournament for participants with various disabilities, providing specially equipped buses for disabled users to facilitate barrier-free travel in Gwangju.

The city will also seek ways to revitalize the Gwangju eSports Stadium, the largest venue for spectator sports in daily life in Korea. It plans to redesign the space so citizens can freely and comfortably experience gaming every day and expand cultural exchange events by hosting diverse citizen-participation eSports tournaments and camps.

▶ "Sponomics": Revitalizing the Economy through Sports

Following Gwangju FC’s impressive third-place finish in the 2023 season and their successful qualification for the Asia Champions League (ACL), the city is preparing for another leap forward by enhancing the team’s marketability.

Special efforts will be made to thoroughly prepare for the ACL, attract spectators, and recreate the enthusiastic support reminiscent of the 2002 FIFA World Cup semifinals to foster a soccer boom. The city will also ensure thorough maintenance and safety management of the main stadium, Gwangju World Cup Stadium.

To successfully host the "2025 World Archery Championships" and the "2025 World Para Archery Championships," the city established the World Archery Competition Support Group in January and formulated three major strategies: "Enhancing the Gwangju Brand Value (Special Gwangju brand)," "Satisfactory Championships," and "Sustainable Archery."

Gwangju will strengthen its sports diplomacy capabilities by supporting underdeveloped countries through advanced archery technology programs (ODA) and attracting domestic and international archery training camps utilizing the event’s assets.

The city plans to attract and host various MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) events linked to the local sports industry, such as sports fairs and leisure sports industry exhibitions, and foster the sports MICE industry by hosting international sports conferences and general meetings.

▶ "Sportainment": Combining Sports and Entertainment

Gwangju City will transform underutilized public sports facilities to allow citizens who want to exercise to enjoy and experience "anything, anytime, and anyone" can participate. The city will reflect citizens’ demands by converting facilities to accommodate various sports.

Measures will be taken to prevent monopolization of facilities by specific sports or organizations, diversify programs by facility, and implement modernization projects rather than patchwork repairs.

With the 2024 ACL matches being held, the city will actively attract large-scale events such as concerts to revitalize the World Cup Stadium. It will also open running tracks for citizens, promote experiential learning linked with educational institutions, hold cultural and sports events at public institutions, and attract commercial facilities to increase facility usage.

The Yeomju Sports Complex, located in the city center, will gradually be transformed into a sportainment space shared with the general public.

First, the Olympic Memorial National Life Hall, built over 30 years ago, is planned to be remodeled into a sportainment experience center combining exercise and entertainment functions that anyone, regardless of age or gender, can enjoy. To this end, the city plans to apply for a Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism public project in May.

The Yeomju Equestrian Center will be relocated to the outskirts of Gwangju, and the vacated site will be considered for the construction of an indoor sports complex center. Additionally, the area around Lotte Mart will be developed into a sports culture park combining shopping malls and cultural complex facilities through private investment before the lease contract ends in 2027.

Mayor Kang Gi-jung of Gwangju said, "We must work together to encourage people to visit Gwangju beyond just the stadiums through sports tourism and swiftly implement various measures to activate everyday sports so that all citizens can enjoy their desired sports anytime." He added, "We need to strengthen the city’s vitality not only through major international events like the 2025 World Archery Championships but also by hosting tournaments that promote Gwangju and through official development assistance (ODA) projects."