Preparing for the Era of 30 Million Tourists Amid Culture and Nature
Building Stay-type Infrastructure and Planning Diverse Festivals
Bird's-eye view of the ecological trail development project in the Damyang Lake area. Provided by Damyang County
Damyang County in Jeollanam-do is implementing policies aimed at attracting 30 million tourists by discovering a variety of cultural, ecological, and tourism content and building tourism infrastructure in response to the changing tourism market.
According to the county on the 6th, the region's representative festivals, the Bamboo Festival and Santa Festival, are being transformed into stay-type festivals with unique content where both residents and tourists can enjoy together.
The Damyang Bamboo Festival, which has been designated as an Honorary Cultural Tourism Festival in Korea, created a nighttime landscape in the Juknokwon area for the first time last year, allowing visitors to enjoy the festival all day and stay an extra night. This year, from May 9 for five days, the festival is being prepared as a global event where domestic and international tourists can experience a variety of tastes and styles using bamboo.
The Santa Festival, held during the Christmas season, offers visitors a special winter experience with its splendid scenery and festival programs. For the first time since Jungang-ro was established, the festival has brought new vitality, with crowds of tourists filling the area even at night. This year, the festival venue will be expanded to the area around Damyang Market and Manseonggyo, aiming to revitalize the local economy.
In particular, the county plans to discover and host one festival per township that highlights local characteristics, promoting local tourism and food using native resources. This will create opportunities for both residents and tourists to mingle, contribute to increased local income, and help boost the resident population.
Additionally, unique tourism products such as the 'Jangryu Gourmet Belt Tour,' which features the 'jang making culture' listed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, and the 'Sound Walking Auditory Tour,' which can be enjoyed by foreigners, children, and the tourism disadvantaged, are continuously adding to the enjoyment of stay-type tourists.
Furthermore, at major attractions such as Juknokwon, Gwanbangjerim, and Metasequoia Land?which have been selected as part of Korea Tourism's Top 100, Local 100, and 50 Beautiful Urban Forests?night tourism spaces combining culture and digital technology are being created. Projects such as Damstay, Dambit Art Warehouse, and the Metasequoia Land musical fountain are being promoted to establish a beautiful and mysterious nighttime tourism experience in Damyang.
In line with the tourism trend of seeking meditation and relaxation for mental healing, the county is developing tourism content centered on humanities and the garden industry, based on the construction of the Damyang International Meditation Center under Chuwolsan and the soon-to-open National Garden Culture Center. To become the center of K-wellness tourism, Damyang is expanding the Damyang Lake Ecological Trail and promoting restoration projects for the Damyang River Wetland Protected Area and Geumseongsan Ecological Wetland.
At the same time, efforts are being made to establish a high-quality food culture befitting Damyang's reputation as the representative of 'Namdomihyang,' including small restaurant kitchen improvement projects and the operation of a food tourism interpreter academy.
According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and Statistics Korea, Damyang County's resident population in the second quarter of 2024 was 419,946, ranking overwhelmingly first among the 16 population extinction areas in Jeollanam-do. Last year, according to the Korea Tourism Data Lab, 15.76 million visitors came to Damyang, establishing it as a leading tourist destination in Korea.
County Governor Lee Byeongno emphasized, "By developing various experiential and stay-type tourism infrastructure utilizing Damyang's beautiful scenery and cultural resources, as well as unique tourism assets, we will create a 'number one inland tourism destination' that attracts 30 million tourists."
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