Tourism Organization Announces 10 Small but Promising Potential Tourist Destinations with High Growth Potential

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 17th the final selection of 10 "Small but Strong Potential Tourist Destinations" for 2025. The Small but Strong Potential Tourist Destinations project aims to discover and nurture regional tourist sites with low awareness but high growth potential, and has been jointly promoted by the Korea Tourism Organization and local governments since 2019.

This year, seven newly selected sites are ▲Gimpo Hamsang Park (Gimpo-si, Gyeonggi) ▲Rainbow Healing Tourist Site (Yeongdong-gun, Chungbuk) ▲Myeoncheon Eupseong (Dangjin-si, Chungnam) ▲Sani Garden (Haenam-gun, Jeonnam) ▲Sunchang Fermentation Theme Park (Sunchang-gun, Jeonbuk) ▲Otgol Village (Dong-gu, Daegu) ▲Section 5 of Hoengseong Lake Trail (Hoengseong-gun, Gangwon). Three sites, ▲Dadaepo Beach Park (Saha-gu, Busan) ▲Mujinjeong (Haman-gun, Gyeongnam) ▲Seongan Olle (Jeju-si), were selected again as support targets for 2025 following last year.

Mujinjeong, Haman-gun, Gyeongnam [Photo by Korea Tourism Organization]

The Korea Tourism Organization analyzes the status of Small but Strong Potential Tourist Destinations using big data and provides customized consulting. It also supports promotional marketing by linking with domestic tourism campaigns led by the organization such as "Travel Month" and "Digital Tourist Resident Card," and plans to highlight the strengths of regionally specialized content to attract foreign tourists through the organization's overseas branches.

Last year’s selected site, "Namwon City Kim Byung-jong Art Museum," developed various tourism products such as Namwon Stay and the Three-Color Local Art Tour in connection with the Korea Tourism Organization’s "Digital Tourist Resident Card" project, resulting in more than a 2.2-fold increase in visitors compared to 2023. Mujinjeong in Haman-gun, Gyeongnam, also regularized the "Nakhwa Nori" event as a product, nearly doubling tourists compared to the previous year and attracting 400 Japanese group tourists for the first time in Haman-gun.

Lee Sang-min, Director of the National Tourism Office at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, "There are many hidden gems that are not yet well known." He added, "The Korea Tourism Organization will spare no effort to discover unique tourism resources that only those regions have and support them to become representative local contents of Korea."