Gyeongsagnbuk-do Declares Gyeongbuk Tourism Goal of Attracting 100 Mln Tourists

Gyeongsangbuk-do Gov. Lee Cheol-woo gives a speech at a ceremony to declare the “2030 Gyeongbuk Tourism Vision” at The K-Hotel in Gyeongju on March 16. (Photo: Gyeongsangbuk-do)

The Gyeongsangbuk-do provincial government held a ceremony to declare the “2030 Gyeongbuk Tourism Vision” at The K-Hotel in Gyeongju on March 16.

Attendance included about 300 people, such as tourism industry representatives, the Gyeongsangbuk-do Culture & Tourism Organization (GCTO), 23 city and county chiefs and tourism officials.

During the event, the provincial government released its new future vision and strategies targeting 2030 to spearhead a “provincial era” through tourism.

Gyeongsangbuk-do suggested the vision, calling for “Real Korea Gyeongbuk” and “Leading Global K-tourism.” The provincial government aims to attract 100 million tourists, including 3 million foreign tourists, and earn 5 trillion won in tourism revenues.

In order to successfully achieve the vision, Gyeongsangbuk-do plans to lead a “provincial era” by implementing four action strategies: realizing a “capital with tourism attractions,” frequented by people around the world, industrializing the tourism segment in cooperation with the field, spreading K-tourism centrality to the world and ushering in a “tourism era,” with the province taking the initiative.

Starting with an opening ceremony, the event proceeded with the commissioning of Gyeongsangbuk-do tourism public relations supporters, declaring “2030 Gyeongbuk Tourism Vision” and a performance for the successful realization of the vision.

People from industry, academia, research and public circles, including 23 city and county heads, culture & tourism guides, tourism agencies and tourism industry officials joined forces to successfully realize the vision during the performance.

The province saw tourism arrivals rebound to 40.38 million tourists, equal to levels prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gyeongsangbuk-do ranked first in terms of visitors based on the Korea Tourism Data Lab of KT in the non-Seoul metropolitan area and 3rd in the nation overall.

Gyeongsangbuk-do, expecting the opening of Ullung Port and an integrated new airport in 2026 and 2030, respectively, plans to operate large-sized, port-oriented tourism cruises. The province’s tourism outlook is rosy with ushering in of a “two-port era.”

The province plans to solve issues related to provincial extinction and reinvigorate the regional economy by implementing projects to industrialize Gyeongbuk-style attractions based on K-culture, explore and nurture world-class, unique tourism content, and boost value-added tourism industry through combination of technology and tourism through utilization of the achievements the province has so far made, excellent tourism resources and opportunities.

Gyeongsangbuk-do Gov. Lee Cheol-woo said, “Today’s vision declaration ceremony will serve as a role of pump-priming designed to achieve an era in which the province will attract 100 million tourists, and Gyeongsangbuk-do will make preparation in a systematic fashion to preemptively cope with the global tourism market.”