"Working While Touring Vacation Spots"… Busan Emerging as a Hot Place for Workation?

Participation in Busan-Style Remote Work More Than Doubles, Entering a Growth Trajectory
Cumulative Participants Surpass 10,000, Optimal Destination for Combining Work and Leisure
Strategic Promotion of Content and Facility Development, Gaining Global Attention

The so-called ‘workation’ project, promoted by Busan City to provide remote work locations and content at vacation spots, is noticeably gaining momentum.

Busan City (Mayor Park Hyung-jun) announced on the 24th that the total cumulative number of participants in the Busan-style vacation workation activation project, which is being promoted mainly in areas with declining urban populations, surpassed 10,000 as of the end of last year.

The target areas include five autonomous districts: three population decline areas?Dong-gu, Yeongdo-gu, and Seo-gu?and two population interest areas?Jung-gu and Geumjeong-gu.

Last year, the number of Busan workation participants reached approximately 6,900, showing a steep growth rate of more than double compared to about 3,300 participants in 2023.

"Working While Touring Vacation Spots"… Busan Emerging as a Hot Place for Workation?

Number of Users of Busan-style Workation.

With various tourism products and comfortable workspaces provided, Busan has established itself as the optimal place for ▲employees of about 1,100 companies who want to escape the daily urban routine to gain vitality and carry out teamwork projects, and ▲domestic and international freelancers seeking creative inspiration in a new environment to combine leisure and work.

Strategic promotional activities have led to successful project outcomes in terms of participant growth and satisfaction.

Throughout last year, Busan City implemented multifaceted promotional strategies to raise awareness of Workation Busan, including ▲business briefings targeting companies in the metropolitan area, ▲linking workation institutional programs for small and medium-sized enterprises in Seoul, and ▲online and offline advertising.

To secure demand from international users, global promotional marketing activities were also carried out at various international forums and tourism exhibitions. In September last year, the ‘Global Digital Nomad Workation Event’ was successfully held.

At this event, 81 overseas participants experienced various networking events and workation programs in Busan for about a month. According to participant surveys, overseas attendees cited the region’s affordable living costs, convenient transportation infrastructure, and work environment as major strengths, positioning Busan as an ideal city for digital nomads worldwide.

The city plans to discover differentiated content and further strengthen workation.

This year, aiming to take a step further in strengthening global branding of workation, Busan plans to expand related events and programs and continue overseas promotional marketing.

In addition to the existing base center and three satellite centers currently in operation, two additional satellite centers will be operated from February, providing a total of six distinctive work environments.

The two additional satellite centers are the Lavals Hotel Lounge (Yeongdo-gu) and Grab The Ocean Songdo (Seo-gu).

Moreover, by improving the work environment, ▲24-hour accessible workspaces will be expanded to offer a wide range of work environment options for international remote workers who work late at night due to time differences and domestic freelancers.

Along with this, ▲‘With Pet Workation’ related content will be developed by linking hotel facilities that allow pets, and ▲family-friendly environments will be provided by supporting childcare-specialized programs linked to childcare facilities for family participants.

Also, the ‘Workation Activation Project (Sea LAB in BUSAN),’ selected as a Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism public project for 2024, is being promoted in the Haeundae-gu area outside the population decline regions, with the period extended until March.

Details and usage information about Busan-style workation can be found on the official website.

Kim Hyun-jae, Director of the Tourism MICE Bureau of Busan City, said, “Busan’s workation workspaces offer a special experience that goes beyond simply working, blending work and rest,” adding, “Visitors will experience the best remote work environment while feeling the city’s charm where excellent natural surroundings coexist with history and the future.”