Admission Fees, Rental Income from Revenue Facilities, and Experience Facility Usage Fees
Mayor Noh: "We Will Share Warmth with Children, Disabled, Elderly, and Women"
We have entered an era where gardens put food on the table. The Suncheonman National Garden and Suncheonman Wetland, which greatly enhanced the city's brand value through the 2023 Suncheonman International Garden Expo, have attracted 1.76 million visitors within 100 days of reopening after reorganization, securing 11 billion KRW in tax revenue.
This is the so-called "Garden Money." Suncheon City plans to use the tourism revenue from these national gardens and wetlands as a financial resource to expand policies that help vulnerable groups such as women, the elderly, children, and people with disabilities, as well as all citizens in their daily lives.
▶ Establishment of support policies by sector for children, elderly, women, and people with disabilities, to be implemented as early as the second half of the year
At the 2nd anniversary media briefing of the 8th local government term, Mayor Noh Gwan-gyu of Suncheon stated, “We plan to reinvest the operating profits of the national garden so that warmth is evenly distributed among all groups, including children, people with disabilities, the elderly, and women.”
To concretize the reinvestment plan, Mayor Noh ordered each department to identify and expand the most necessary and urgent policies for each group based on various opinions gathered through 13 sessions of Win-Win Talks. Sector-specific policies are gradually taking shape.
In the elderly sector, support for senior centers, which play an increasingly important role in an aging society, will be expanded, and senior centers will be further revitalized as spaces for communication and social participation.
Along with the construction of a new, larger dining hall at the Southern Welfare Center, the establishment of a Northern Senior Welfare Town linked with dementia care facilities and senior welfare centers is also underway.
Various policies have also been developed to make childbirth and child-rearing happier in Suncheon. In particular, the budget for supporting meal costs for children using care facilities during school vacations, which was highly requested by parents, has already been finalized, and a 50% benefit will be provided starting in the second half of 2024.
From next year, postpartum care expenses, which were previously 800,000 KRW for the first child and 1 million KRW for the second and subsequent children, will be increased to 1 million KRW for the first child as well, in response to the deepening low birthrate trend.
Additionally, to improve the childcare environment for our children, additional class operation expenses will be provided to local daycare centers, and childcare fees for foreign children will be supported at 50% by age group to ensure no child is left behind in basic education.
The Maejung Taxi project, operated for residents of remote villages, will also be expanded. Until now, residents could use it up to five times per month, but starting in 2025, this will increase to six times.
Furthermore, plans are underway to build a center for people with disabilities and to gather opinions to create a smooth communication space among disability organizations, which currently have offices scattered throughout the city.
In the agricultural sector, to quickly respond to the changing rural environment, support will be provided for public rental of large agricultural machinery and urban-type smart farms. Beyond simple support, active backing will be given to innovation hubs in the green bio industry, such as the construction of a bio-specialized knowledge industry center, to strengthen the competitiveness of future agriculture.
▶ The power of gardens that changed the tourism landscape of Korea, topping theme parks and the metropolitan area in visitor numbers
According to the “Major Tourist Site Visitor Statistics” published annually by the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, in 2023, Suncheonman National Garden and Wetland achieved 7.78 million paid admissions, reclaiming the top spot from Everland, a theme park that had held the position for years.
Among 2,752 tourist sites nationwide, this is the first time a tourist site managed and operated by a local government, rather than a private company or central government, has taken first place.
Moreover, among the top five tourist destinations in 2023, Suncheonman National Garden and Wetland is the only site located outside the metropolitan area and in the Gwangju-Jeolla region.
Notably, during the expo period, Suncheon set an admission fee as high as 15,000 KRW to maintain high quality, yet despite charging up to five times the admission fee of Gyeongbokgung Palace, which ranked fourth in visitors in 2023, the number of visitors exceeded Gyeongbokgung by over 2 million.
After the expo, the newly reopened Suncheonman National Garden and Wetland, enhanced with animation and AI this year, charges a maximum admission fee of 10,000 KRW. Although this is somewhat higher than other tourist sites, visitors respond that “it is not a bit regrettable.”
One well-maintained national garden and one well-preserved coastal wetland are changing the tourism landscape of Korea.
▶ Revenue from admission fees, rental fees for profit facilities, and experience facility usage fees expected to continue increasing through year-end
It is rare for a local government with a population of 300,000 to secure 11 billion KRW in resources from a single tourist site within just three months.
About 5.1 billion KRW of this amount is known to be budget savings from switching the previously outsourced national garden operation to full city management, thereby reducing labor costs.
The revenue is expected to continue increasing until the end of this year.
According to Booking.com, a lodging and travel platform, Suncheon showed the highest increase in search volume from June to September this year compared to the previous year.
As Suncheon ranked first in Jeonnam and third nationwide in the 2023 domestic summer vacation satisfaction survey conducted by a travel research institute, the tourism demand for the representative garden and wetland is expected to continue.
Mayor Noh Gwan-gyu said, “We have truly entered an era where ecology, gardens, and wetlands put food on the table. Everyone sincerely envies Suncheon, which has gardens and wetlands,” adding, “We will promptly implement measures so that this revenue returns to citizens as tangible benefits.”
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