Tourist Visitors to Gyeonggi Province Up 15% During "Year of Gyeonggi Visitation"

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 19th that visitors to Gyeonggi Province during last year's "Year of Gyeonggi Visitation" increased 14.8% (6.41 million visitors) compared to 2004.

According to the "2005 Year of Gyeonggi Visitation Evaluation Report" released by the province after analyzing the Gyeonggi Tourism Census and other data, last year's visitor count reached 56.74 million, an increase of 30.8% (13.35 million visitors) from the previous year's 43.39 million. After subtracting the natural growth rate of 16% for tourists, the net increase in visitors resulting from the implementation of the "Year of Gyeonggi Visitation" amounted to approximately 6.41 million.

By nationality, visitors consisted of 98.6% domestic tourists (55.39 million) and 1.4% foreign visitors (1.35 million).

The average spending per tourist was 71,765 won for domestic visitors and 245,398 won for foreign visitors. This resulted in total tourist spending of 475.2 billion won, generating economic ripple effects of 761.1 billion won in production, 180.2 billion won in income, 401.8 billion won in added value, and 20,864 jobs.

However, public awareness of the "Year of Gyeonggi Visitation" reached only 46.8%, falling short of 50 percent.

In particular, among the 10 major festivals selected by the province, the Uijeongbu International Music Theater Festival showed awareness of only 9.1%, followed by the Namyangju World Outdoor Performance Festival (16.5%), the Anseong Namsadang Bawoodeoki Festival (17.9%), the Gwacheon Hamada Festival (19.6%), the Suwon Hwaseong Theater Festival (22.9%), and the Paju World Peace Fest (27.1%), with six festivals falling short of 30% public awareness.

Additionally, while foreign tourists' visit rate to Seoul reaches over 80 percent, their visit rate to Gyeonggi Province remains at around 20 percent, indicating that foreign visitors stay in Seoul while allocating only part of their itinerary to Gyeonggi Province. This reveals an urgent need for measures to address "Seoul dependency."