On January 28th, Busan was selected as the global tourism city at the project by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST). This project was pushed to foster new tourism hubs in the provinces to resolve the concentration of tourists in Seoul. The MCST selected Busan as the global tourism city because Busan has a high understanding of policies and proposed excellent an business plan utilizing various festivals, its history, and culture. In fact, Busan has hosted more than 40 festivals and international events, including the two ASEAN-Republic of KOREA Commemorative Summit and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Through the project, Busan will be received 50 billion won in funding from the MCST by 2024.

           Using this budget, Busan proposed a goal to increase the number of foreign tourists visiting Busan from the current three million to 10 million and the re-visit rate of foreign tourists from the current 27.1% to 60% by 2024. Busan also plans to create 10,000 new tourism-related jobs and raise Busan's international conference ranking from 12th to 7th. Busan will invest a total 150 billion won in three fields: key projects, strategic projects and linked projects, over five years. Key projects include Busan branding business, the development of marine leisure experience contents, walking courses and the gala show products at BUSAN International Film Festival. Strategic projects include the creation of a convenient travel environment through the development of smart foreign language menu apps and so on. Building a Busan-style mobility platform and improvement of city tour buses will be implemented as part of the linked projects.

           Oh Keo-Don (Mayor, Busan) said, the "Global tourism city project is a key project of the national tourism development strategy to spread foreign tourists to the provinces and to foster tourism hub cities that can rival those around the world. This selection is very meaningful in the sense that Busan has been recognized as the core to carry out the national tourism strategy that will lead the future Korean tourism industry." at a press conference on January 28th.

By Jeong Moon-Ju, Desk Editor

jjmoonju@pusan.ac.kr