The temporarily opened sections of Yongsan Park attract just 10 to 20 percent as many visitors per square meter as the average across Seoul's major parks, according to a comparison of official data.
The finding emerged Wednesday from a review of a visitor analysis report by the Seoul AI Foundation and separate foot-traffic figures compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
The Seoul AI Foundation — formerly the Seoul Digital Foundation — published a report in 2024 showing that Seoul's 108 major parks drew an average of 11 visitors per square meter annually. The figures were based on mobile carrier foot-traffic data collected from January through December 2023, counting visitors who stayed at least 15 minutes.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said last December that the temporarily opened sections of Yongsan Park had drawn a cumulative total of more than 1.8 million visitors since partial access began in August 2020. The officer quarters Zone 5 area opened in August 2020, and Yongsan Children's Garden opened in May 2023.
Yongsan Children's Garden covers 300,000 square meters. Spread over the five years and five months since the first section opened, the annual average comes to about 330,000 visitors. Even attributing all 1.8 million visits solely to the Children's Garden and dividing by its two years and eight months of operation yields about 680,000 a year. Either way, the figure translates to roughly 1.1 to 2.3 visitors per square meter annually.
By the same measure, Seoul Forest recorded 22 visitors per square meter, Boramae Park 23 and Children's Grand Park 20. Even larger parks such as World Cup Park and Bukseoul Dream Forest logged 7 and 6, respectively.
The figures for Yongsan Children's Garden place it near the bottom of the 108-park ranking. The adjacent Yongsan Family Park recorded 2 visitors per square meter, ranking 103rd, while Gangnam's Yulhyeon Park recorded 1, ranking 104th.
The two data sets use different methodologies, however. The Seoul AI Foundation counted mobile carrier foot traffic — allowing for overlapping time slots — while the ministry's figures reflect actual entry counts verified through advance reservations. Because foot-traffic methods tend to produce higher numbers than actual headcounts, the gap between Yongsan Park and other parks may be somewhat overstated.
Ha Jun-kyung, the Cheong Wa Dae senior secretary for economic growth, said in a TV Chosun interview Wednesday that "a park is fundamentally meaningful when many people use it, but if you go to the Yongsan Children's Garden area right now, there are not many people there." Ha had made a similar remark on the day the Aug. 13 housing policy package was announced, saying the site was "an extremely large piece of land with far too few people using it," and proposed a broader discussion on how to make use of Yongsan Park.
When asked about a provision in the Yongsan Park Special Act — enacted during the Roh Moo-hyun administration — that prohibits changes to the park's designated use, Ha said it may be worth "considering adding a clause that would allow a portion to be excluded through deliberation when there is a significant public interest purpose," adding that "this, of course, would need to go through social discussion and reach a consensus."
dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com
