26th~28th BEXCO ‘Korea’s representative festival fair’
115 companies and 283 booths participated, including Hamyang and Jeju
Local symbol event held, visitors excited
For three days starting on the 26th, the ‘4th Korea Representative Festival Expo’ will be held in Hall 3 of BEXCO’s 1st Exhibition Hall, gathering only the ‘real’ festivals of local governments across the country.
The ‘4th Korea Representative Festival Expo’, a festival of local festivals in Korea, opened at BEXCO on the 26th.
The Korea Local Newspaper Association, which consists of nine local daily newspapers across the country, including Busan Ilbo, held an opening ceremony for the expo at 2 p.m. on this day in Hall 3 of BEXCO’s first exhibition hall, with officials from local governments and visitors from all over the country in attendance. This expo, where you can see the representative festivals of each region in one place, is hosted by the Korea Local Newspaper Association and organized by the Korea Exhibition Industry Institute. It will be held for three days until the 28th under the theme ‘Korea united through festivals.’ 115 companies, including cities and local governments and companies across the country, participated, and a total of 283 booths were set up.
On this day, Jin-Oh Park (CEO of Kangwon Ilbo), President of the Korea Local Newspaper Association, said in his opening speech, “When many festivals across the country were suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic and the tourism industry entered a recession, we started ‘Korea’s representative festival fair’. Crisis is an opportunity.” “As the will of the member companies came together, it eventually became the best festival fair in the country,” he said. “This year, we plan to take the blueprint of the local tourism industry to the next level by not only promoting local festivals throughout the country but also becoming a venue for exchange to seek new development directions.” “It will be a customized expo,” he said. He said, “Aggressive marketing is needed to overcome economic crises at home and abroad, such as the Israeli war, and this fair is a valuable opportunity, and festivals are the core of the local tourism industry.”
‘Korea’s representative festival fair’ is hosted by the Korea Local Newspaper Association, of which 9 local media outlets, including Busan Ilbo, are members, and organized by the Korea Exhibition Industry Institute.
In his welcoming speech, Busan City Executive Mayor Lee Jun-seung said, “The current hot topic in Korea is balanced regional development, especially in the southern region centered around Busan, driving the development of the metropolitan area and the Republic of Korea. In order to revitalize the region by holding this expo, Korean local newspapers such as Busan Ilbo “I am grateful to the Newspaper Association and other member companies for their efforts,” he said. “I think this fair is a local festival that spreads to neighboring towns when people laugh and talk about fun things together by selecting and collecting extracts from about 800 festivals in Korea.” “Through this, we hope that the numerous festivals in the region will be widely known and that this will be a wonderful opportunity for the region to coexist.”
At the booth set up by Hamyang-gun, shouts of ‘I saw it!’ rang out over and over again.
After the opening ceremony, the performance of the girl group ‘H1-KEY’ began, and the atmosphere in the exhibition hall heated up. Each local government that participated in the fair competed to welcome guests by presenting a representative festival.
“Sim~~~I saw~!” A loud, almost scolding voice echoed throughout the exhibition hall. “More, more, more, louder! Louder!” The host’s voice encouraging support also grew louder. This is a booth to promote the Hamyang Wild Ginseng Festival organized by Hamyang-gun. The ‘Scream I Saw You’ event, which gives prizes to citizens who record decibels above a certain level, is in full swing. Citizens lined up in a long line, clearing their throats and waiting for their turn. A Hamyang-gun official in charge of the event said, “We prepared the event with the intention of letting people shout out loud and relieve stress these days when there are many stressful things going on,” and added, “We prepared to naturally promote the wild ginseng festival by making Simmani feel the joy of discovering wild ginseng.” said.
At the booth set up by Jeju City, citizens lined up in a long line to participate in the ‘Stepper Challenge.’
On one side, running in place is in full swing. It is a challenge to achieve a target number of steps by quickly rolling your feet within a limited time, and sweat was beading on the foreheads of the participating citizens. This is the ‘Stepper Challenge’ to promote the original downtown Olle trail ‘Seongan Olle’ prepared by Jeju City. A special gift was given to the person who achieved the most steps, and Jeju chocolate was distributed to all attendees. An official from Jeju City said, “In the era of ESG tourism, we planned an event that would remind us of the environment and health at the same time. By handing out Seongan Olle maps, this is an event that will promote Jeju’s beautiful Olle trail and take care of your health at the same time.”
A promotional booth for the ‘Receipt Photo’ event prepared by Busan City.
At the Busan City Public Relations Center, people gathered to participate in the ‘receipt photo’ event. It is a type of black-and-white instant camera, and has the advantage of allowing you to immediately check the photo like a receipt. This is an item that is very popular with the MZ generation in line with the retro craze. An event is also being held where Busan City character goods will be given away through a prize draw for citizens who take pictures. An official from Busan City said, “With the motto that every day is healing and every day is a festival, we have prepared an event that can be easily accessed without resistance.”
The exhibition event consists of a representative festival promotion hall that promotes festivals in cities, counties and districts across the country, a tourism industry hall that sells local festival souvenirs and promotes the travel industry, and an experience hall where you can experience local festivals. At the experience center, you can enjoy traditional culture experience, DIY making experience, and job experience.
A ‘B2B-Day’ buyer consultation session was also held to promote mutual exchange between each local government and festival-related companies. In particular, influencers such as YouTubers also participated in this buyer consultation meeting to publicize the local festival nationwide.
On the 27th, the second day of the event, the Korea Best Festival Award and the regional representative mascot award ceremony will be held. There is also a ‘Carrie and Friends’ children’s character performance for family visitors. On the last day, the 28th, the three-day schedule will conclude with the Supporters’ Awards Ceremony.
Pre-registration for this fair is possible through the fair website, and anyone interested in the festival can enter for free.
Reporter Nam Hyung-wook [email protected]
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