Selected for the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's 'Hometown Olle' Contest
184 Companies and 1,100 Participants Joined Over Three Years
(Photo from left) Group photo of participants in the Simcheong Hanok Village workation, workation space within Simcheong Hanok Village. Panoramic view of Simcheong Hanok Village, Gokseong County. Provided by Gokseong County
Gokseong County in South Jeolla Province announced on May 29 that it officially launched season 3 of 'Work Village Gokseong' at Simcheong Hanok Village in Ogok-myeon on May 21 as part of its initiative to boost the resident population.
'Work Village Gokseong' is a program selected in 2023 by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's 'Hometown Olle' contest. It provides customized programs that allow companies from the Seoul metropolitan area to come to Gokseong and participate in workations in a local rotation format, encouraging them to stay in the region. Through these workations, Gokseong continues to attract new residents, increasing the number of people staying in the area, revitalizing the local economy, and creating a new model for population response.
In fact, over the past three years, including the pilot period, 184 participating companies and more than 1,100 users have taken part in the workation program in Gokseong, and nearly 98% of participants expressed their intention to revisit.
This year, from May to December, 10 startup companies will regularly participate in the Gokseong workation program each month. The participating companies include startups and nonprofit startups.
In addition to companies, individual participants can also join the workation. Starting in June, the 'Forest Camp' program will select professionals in specific fields (such as developers, designers, writers, and freelancers) in cohorts, allowing them to stay in Gokseong for six days and five nights to get to know the region. A total of 10 cohorts (14 participants per cohort) will be organized until December, and anyone can apply individually through the website.
The county is also introducing a new 'Gokseong One Month Living' (Monthly Rustic Town One Month Living) program. To operate this program, earlier this year, the county used 500 million won of special grant tax out of the 1 billion won Hometown Olle project budget to remodel part of Songjeonggwan in Simcheong Hanok Village into a collaborative space that can accommodate four or more people simultaneously.
In addition, existing workation partner companies and local young entrepreneurs will build networks and discover local business opportunities through a workshop-style 'Rustic Town Festa.' The county also plans to collaborate with major online communities to establish an 'offline base camp' in Gokseong. The county aims to gradually expand the workation program into a corporate village, thereby creating new local jobs and increasing the resident population.
Meanwhile, to encourage long-term stays and transition workation participants into permanent residents, the county is using the Local Extinction Response Fund to create the following in the Samgi-myeon area: ▲Rustic Town (a rural education-integrated workation corporate village) ▲Local Vitality Town (housing, living infrastructure, and jobs). Rustic Town is scheduled for completion in the second half of this year.
Lee Soonman, head of the Population Policy Division, emphasized, "Our ultimate goal is for companies to relocate to Gokseong, leading to long-term stays and eventual settlement in the region," adding, "We will do our best to establish Gokseong as the ideal place to work and to rebrand it as a mecca for workations."
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