Icheon City "Icheon Rice Culture Festival Direct Impact Only 9.7 Billion KRW"

Evaluation Report Meeting Held... "Indirect Effects Amount to 20.4 Billion KRW"

'Direct effect of 9.7 billion KRW, indirect effect of 20.4 billion KRW.' This is the economic impact analysis result of this year's representative local festival, the 'Icheon Rice Culture Festival,' announced by Icheon City, Gyeonggi Province.

Icheon City held the '23rd Icheon Rice Culture Festival Comprehensive Evaluation Report Meeting' yesterday at the City Hall Communication Plaza. At the meeting, various stakeholders including Mayor Kim Kyung-hee of Icheon, organizing committee members, and citizens attended to identify this year's festival achievements and issues, and to seek ways for successful festival management.

At the 'Icheon Rice Culture Festival Evaluation Meeting' held at Icheon City Hall on the 20th, attendees are pledging to successfully host next year's event. Photo by Icheon City

This year's Icheon Rice Culture Festival was held for five days from the 16th to the 20th of last month at the Icheon Agricultural Theme Park. The city explained at the report meeting that the direct economic effect of the five-day festival was estimated at approximately 9.7 billion KRW, and the indirect economic ripple effect was 20.4 billion KRW. Sales of about 1.5 billion KRW occurred within the festival site alone, and with around 220,000 tourists visiting, sales and tourist numbers increased by 26% and 38% respectively compared to the previous year, the city added.

The report meeting also mentioned as an achievement the reduction of visitor inconvenience through the installation of partitions within the festival site, operation of carts, and the installation of large tents at the food markets in the eup, myeon, and dong districts.

Mayor Kim said, "We will comprehensively review and supplement the opinions and improvements raised at the evaluation report meeting to hold next year's festival with a more advanced appearance."