Going All the Way

Gangwon Province to fully support to bring 2014 Winter Olympics to Pyeongchang

Gangwon Province is Korea's Alaska in the sense that it has abundant snow during the winter located in the northernmost part of South Korea. Winter snow and skiing tour packages have become the province's greatest asset in terms of business for the province's residents.
The Gangwon provincial government has been doing all it can to help its residents to make more money from tourism by devising publicity and unique strategies designed to attract foreign tourists, especially from the countries with warm climate including southeast Asia, said Hong Ki-eup, director-general of Environment, Tourism and Culture Bureau of the provincial administration.
Under the strategies, it sponsored 61 familiarization tours for a total of 650 media people and tourist industry officials from 22 countries during 2005. The 2014 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, if the bid committee wins the hosting rights, will be a great boon for the province's tourism because it will make it one of the most well-known ski resorts in the world,
joining the ranks of such globally well-known winter ski resorts as Innsbruck, Austria, and Aspen, Colorado, in the United States
The province is backing up the bid committee to win the event as much as it can, said Dir.-Gen. Hong Ki-eup.
Gangwon Province also operated a Gangwon tourism booth to drum up tourism in the province at the "2007 Our Country Travel Expo"held Feb. 8 for four days at Coex Center in southern Seoul. The province aimed at showing off its renowned tourism spots, along with various festivals taking place in the province's cities and towns and the introduction of tourism products unique to the province to create a common pan-national feel for attracting the 2014 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics through public relations efforts across the country and abroad.
The Gangwon tourism booth with 17 personnel taking care of its operation also sold tourism products indigenous to the province at the booth, supported by the Gangwon Tourism Association, and Gangneung City and counties.
It was organized by the Gangwon Tourism Marketing Team.
The promotion of ski resorts took over the center stage of the province's public relations efforts, especially aimed at inviting students of primary, middle and high schools in the Seoul area. The booth also showcased the location sites for popular TV series, "Daejoyong"to attract tourists around the country during weekends, taking advantage of the five-day workweek system around the country.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism organized the annual event the 4th one this year to induce outbound domestic travelers to tour their country's tourist spots first and thus invigorate regional economies.
In 2006, the province utilized the Integrated Marketing Communication(IMC) in a bid to spread Hallyu or Korean entertainment material including movies and performances, especially in southeast Asia to make the region the biggest bridgehead for the promotion of the Korean tourism around the world.
The provincial government expanded publicity activities through media outlets and "tourism public relations ambassadors"to America and Europe as well as Southeast Asia in order to highlight the prominence and tradition of the province's tourist attractions and make foreigners"frequent visits to the province part of their life.
It offered familiarization tours on couple packages in March, last year, taekwondo, Korea's martial art and temple stay in May, and winter events in November for inbound visitors from Southeast Asia, Americas, and Europe. The provincial government also offered outing tour products, tours to Mt. Geumgang in North Korea, student excursion tours and cruise tours for Japanese tourists and leisure/sports plus casino tours for business firms.
The provincial government held briefing tours for travel agents in major cities in the country such as Seoul, Busan and Daejeon specializing inbound tourists while taking steps to invigorate Yangyang International Airport as the gateway to the mountainous region near the demilitarized zone dividing south and north Koreas.
Dir-Gen. Hong said the province is all for ecology-related tour programs through the DMZ, the lingering last vestige of the Korean War(1950-1953) designed to ensure the eco-friendly harmony of preservation and development and boost its tourism revenue.
Among the major projects concerning the development of the province's ecological aspects are the "DMZ Peace Village"in the Myeongpa-ri area in Hyeonnae myeon, Jeongson County and the multipurpose "DMZ Museum"projects in the Myeongho-Songheon-ni area, Hyeonnae Myeon. The DMZ Peace Project calls for the construction of a 299,000 sq. meter inter-Korean exchange town for reunions of estranged families in the South and North between 2006 and 2010 at the cost of 10.2 billion won. The planned village, to be furnished with a club house and parking lots, will be transformed into a home-away-from-home base for promotion of tourism and peace, departing from the northernmost image of a remote village of wildlife.
The projected DMZ Museum will be built on a on a lot about the size of 145,396 sq. meters at the cost of 46 billion won by 2008.
The "Peace Culture Plaza"will be built in the Hongwon-ri area in Gangsan and Jungang, Dongsong-eup, Cheorwon County over six years and will be completed in 2009. The project calls for remodeling a meeting place, a museum and an observatory and creation of a park dedicated to the souls of those killed during the Korean War. The facility will serve as not only a space of peace, culture, environment, ecology, and history, symbolizing a yearning for peaceful unification, but also the home of inter-Korean changes and cooperation.
The province also has also strived for the development of the Mt. Geumgang, Mt. Seorak and DMZ tourist zones covering 5,477 sq. km with a view of building up a Pan-East Sea Tourism Belt in pursuit of inter-Korean reconciliation and peace on the Korean Peninsula. The plan calls for developing an urban entertainment/culture-oriented tourist area in the Sokcho and Yangyang area, a maritime tourist center in Goseong and mountainous resort places in Inje. The tourism zone is about the development of peace and ecology tourist spots in Inje, Yanggu and Goseong areas, while the Mt. Geumgang Tourist Zone plan is designed to set up Mt. Geumgang resort areas in Samil-po, Onjeong and Jangjeon, maritime resort sports in Lake Dongjeong and Lake Sijung and mountainous resort spots on Mt. Naegeumgang. nw

Korea Botanical Garden at Byeongnae-ri, Doam-myeon, PyeongChang-gun, Gangwon Province.

Chuam Beach, one of the nation's popular summer vacation attractions in province.

A scenic autumn view of Mt. Seorak.

A breathtaking snow-covered Ulsan Rocks of Mt. Seorak.

(from left photo) A tourism booth set up by the Gangwon provincial government during the "2007 Our Country Trvel Expo"at Coex Center in Seoul on Feb. 8. Hong Ki-eup, director-general of Environment, Tourism and Culture Bureau at the Gangwon provincial government