Korea must develop private-led regional tourism like Japan's Ghibli Park, experts say

Experts are calling on South Korea to benchmark Japan's model of developing locally rooted content from regional resources to revitalize the country's regional tourism ecosystem.

Voices at the forum also urged a shift away from support centered on large travel agencies in the greater Seoul area, toward nurturing regional travel companies and tourism startups.

The Korea Federation of Enterprises and the National Assembly Tourism Industry Forum jointly held a seminar Tuesday at the National Assembly Library on improving tourism laws and regulations to boost regional economic vitality.

With foreign tourists still concentrated in Seoul, the seminar presented a range of legislative and regulatory reform proposals aimed at spreading tourism's economic benefits to the regions.

Particular attention was given to Japan's experience of institutionalizing tourism as a key national policy through its Basic Act for Promoting an Inbound Tourism Nation in 2006.

Lee Hoon, dean of the College of Social Sciences at Hanyang University, said regional tourism accounts for 54.1 percent of Japan's Tourism Agency budget for 2026. "For a region's potential and content to translate into tourism competitiveness, the legal and institutional foundations must be put in place alongside it," he said.

Shin Hak-seung, a Hanyang University tourism professor who delivered the first presentation, highlighted Ghibli Park in Aichi Prefecture as a case study in regional tourism revitalization — a park developed on the site of the 2005 World Expo.

"The result of local government, content companies and media collaborating from the planning stage is that Ghibli Park drew about 2.94 million visitors in 2024, generating an estimated annual economic impact of about 71 billion yen ($452 million), or about 620 billion won," Shin said.

He added that domestic regional tourism, despite possessing outstanding natural and cultural resources, suffers from fragmented project management across local governments and an over-reliance on public-sector-led development that fails to translate into accommodation stays and consumer spending. "International event facilities also lack content IP and long-term operating plans, leaving local governments saddled with maintenance costs once events end," he said.

Shin went on to say that investment funds should be established to develop locally rooted IP, and that a governance structure allowing private-sector participation in planning, investment and operations must be built. He also proposed designating "tourism regeneration special zones" in depopulating areas to selectively ease land-use regulations, offering tax incentives for investment in long-stay tourism infrastructure, and making post-event utilization roadmaps mandatory from the bidding stage for international events.

He also cited a Japanese case in which heavy snowfall was redefined as a regional cultural asset, linking three prefectures and seven municipalities into a single "snow country tourism zone" — a transformation that turned the area into a destination where tourists stay two nights or more.

Chae Ji-young, a senior research fellow at the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute who gave the second presentation, focused on strategies for channeling interest in K-culture into regional tourism content.

"Revitalizing regional tourism must not become a matter of simply replicating the K-pop arenas, large concerts and content facilities being pursued in Seoul," Chae said. "What matters is uncovering the unique assets each region holds — its industries, food and culture — and building differentiated content and brands that answer the question: why does this have to be here?"

She added that just as Japanese tourism has spread to smaller regional cities, Korea also needs to shift toward a model of "regional city tourism where visitors choose and travel to individual cities."

In the panel discussion that followed, Choi Dong-seok, head of the tourism industry division at the South Chungcheong Culture and Tourism Foundation, said the spread of K-culture to regional tourism hinges on the planning capacity to link small-city concepts into area-wide itineraries for extended stays. "We need to break free from the public-sector-led structure and build a local tourism ecosystem where specialized private companies and regional talent grow together," he said.

Kwon Du-hyeon, a board member of the Yeongju Culture and Tourism Foundation, proposed shifting the paradigm of regional tourism policy from "administration-led" to "business-centered" to create an environment where projects can operate on market principles. "We need to move beyond tourist-attraction incentive support centered on large travel agencies in the greater Seoul area, and instead nurture regional travel companies, tourism startups and local tourism professionals together," he said.