[Exclusive] "Local Festivals Turn Hollow... Daegu and North Gyeongsang Gained More Events but Lost Residents"

Daegu and North Gyeongsang: More Festivals, but Resident Participation at the Lowest Level Nationwide
Explosive Increase in Large-Scale Festivals Costing Over 1 Billion Won, but Visitor Spending Remains Flat
"Routinized Expenditures Must Be Cut to Improve Fiscal Efficiency"

Across the country, budgets for local festivals are expanding rapidly, but in most local governments, including the Daegu and North Gyeongsang regions, resident participation and visitor spending have in fact stagnated.

Despite this quantitative expansion, with large-scale festivals costing 1 billion won or more springing up everywhere, critics point out that the substantive goal of revitalizing the local economy is not being achieved.

According to the report "Analysis of the Status of Local Festivals in 2025," released on the 25th by guest researcher Song Jin-ho at the Nara Sallim Research Institute, the number of festivals held in Daegu and North Gyeongsang in 2025 increased by 52.0% and 48.5%, respectively, compared to 2019.

Comparison of growth rates of local festivals by metropolitan area. Provided by Nara Salim Research Institute.

This far exceeds the national average growth rate of 37.3%.

However, the response from local residents, who should be the main participants in these festivals, was lukewarm.

In Daegu, the festival participation rate of local residents fell by 17.2 percentage points compared to 2019, marking the largest decline in the country.

North Gyeongsang also saw a sharp drop of 16.2 percentage points, following Daegu.

Although the number of festivals increased by nearly half, observers say this reveals one side of "showcase-oriented administration" that is largely shunned by local residents.

Comparison of Regional Festival Participation Rates by Metropolitan Area. Provided by Nara Salim Research Institute

The scale of budget投入 is rising steeply.

Nationwide, the number of large-scale festivals with budgets of 1 billion won or more surged by 98.7% compared to 2019.

Local governments are staking everything on scaling up festivals, but this has not translated into tangible economic benefits.

In reality, while the number of external visitors nationwide increased by 21.1%, the growth rate of average daily spending during festival periods expanded by only 1.5 percentage points compared to normal periods.

Per capita spending by visitors also recorded a national average growth rate of 0.0%, indicating that it is virtually unchanged from six years ago.

Comparison of external visitor numbers and per capita spending by region. Provided by Nara Sallim Yeonguso

In particular, in the case of Daegu, the growth rate of average daily spending during festival periods actually decreased by 4.4 percentage points, suggesting that festivals are having little effect in stimulating additional consumption.

Comparison of growth rates in daily average spending of external visitors (including foreigners) by metropolitan area. Provided by Nara Sallim Research Institute

The report expressed concern that local festivals rely excessively (93%) on public funds such as central and local government budgets.

Given that once a festival expands in scale it is difficult to adjust due to fixed costs, the report argues that, in terms of opportunity cost, festivals should be coolly compared and evaluated against other policy programs such as support for small business owners or cultural welfare.

Researcher Song proposed that, to improve the structural health of local festivals, it is urgent to introduce a "local festival life-cycle evaluation system" that verifies the suitability of new festivals to curb indiscriminate increases and manages budgets based on performance.

He went on to stress that "it is also necessary to establish a statistics-based system to systematically manage currently fragmented festival-related data, and to simultaneously redefine the terms and concepts that distinguish simple events from festivals with genuine cultural value."

Song stated, "We must break away from the vague expectation that more festivals will naturally lead to more visitors and more spending," adding, "It is time to boldly phase out projects with low cost-effectiveness and reallocate the same financial resources to more efficient policies."