Incheon Gaehangjang and Songdo Spotlighted as School Trip Destinations... 30,000 Students from 200 Schools Attracted in First Half of the Year

Incheon is gaining popularity as a school trip destination for elementary, middle, and high school students nationwide.

Incheon Tourism Organization announced on the 22nd that it has attracted a total of 200 schools and 31,224 students for school trips in the first half of this year.

This is the result of forming the 'Incheon School Trip Attraction Council' with 16 companies including travel agencies, city experience facilities, and accommodation facilities earlier this year, developing school trip products utilizing historical and cultural tourism resources, and conducting active marketing activities.

Popular destinations frequently visited by students include Ganghwado, a traditional historical education travel site; Wolmi and Gaehangjang, which retain traces of the opening of the port and the Japanese colonial period; Songdo International City, a model of a future city; and Yeongjong, home to Incheon International Airport. Students participate in various experiential activities such as visiting historical sites, luge, Hwameonsek (traditional Korean mat) experience, Wolmi Theme Park, VR (virtual reality) experiences, and climbing.

The organization, in collaboration with the Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education, developed two smart exploration courses that allow experiencing the modern period of Incheon’s Gaehangjang using AR (augmented reality) and VR technology, and operates programs linked with nearby workshop experience facilities, making Incheon Chinatown and the Gaehangjang area an optimal site for field learning.

Incheon School Trip Map [Provided by Incheon Tourism Organization]

Recently, to enhance the fun and satisfaction of school trip students, they developed the 'Gaehangjang Time Slip' mobile stamp tour using the Incheon smart tourism app 'Incheon eJi' to explore historical and cultural tourist sites. Moving beyond a simple walking tour, stamps are automatically generated based on GPS, guiding visitors to the tourist sites. Currently, the Incheon Chinatown and Gaehangjang course is operated year-round, with plans to expand to Ganghwado, Songdo, and other areas in the future.

The organization is producing the 'Incheon Educational Travel Guidebook,' which contains the latest information on representative Incheon school trip courses and tourist sites. It plans to distribute it to schools in the second half of the year and hold briefing sessions for education officials, actively promoting school trip group attraction activities for next year.

Baek Hyun, president of the Incheon Tourism Organization, said, "In the second half of this year, the National Incheon Maritime Museum, the largest complex cultural facility in Incheon, the media art exhibition hall 'Museum L' within the Sangsang Platform, and the future education complex experience space 'AI (Artificial Intelligence) Convergence Education Center' will open," adding, "We hope many students enjoy school trips with these enriched educational contents."