Seoul lawmaker pushes to draw tourists from Jamsil landmarks into neighborhood alleys

When a concert or sports match ends in Jamsil, tens of thousands of spectators pour out — and most head straight for the subway. If that foot traffic could be redirected toward nearby restaurants, traditional markets and alley shops, a single large-scale event could become something more: a driver of the local economy.

That is the new challenge facing the Jamsil Tourism Special Zone in Seoul.

With Songnidan-gil, Bangi Market and Bangi Matgol now joining established draws such as Lotte World, Lotte World Tower, Seokchon Lake and Olympic Park, the zone's priority is shifting — from attracting more visitors to keeping them longer and spreading them deeper into the neighborhood.

That is why Seoul Metropolitan Council member Kim Gwang-cheol (People Power Party, Songpa 2) has made "length of stay" and "local spending" the first items on his agenda since the zone's expansion.

Kim convened a forum Thursday at the Songpa Women's Cultural Center under the theme "LIVE DISTRICT: A New Tourism Special Zone Where Events Move the City," bringing together stakeholders to discuss how to weave Jamsil's tourism, cultural and sports assets together with local commerce into a single tourism ecosystem.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government added 0.44 square kilometers — covering Songnidan-gil, Bangi Market and Bangi Matgol — to the Jamsil Tourism Special Zone on Aug. 27, expanding it from 2.31 square kilometers to 2.75 square kilometers.

In raw numbers the gain is modest, but its significance for tourism policy is considerable.

The original zone was built around large-scale attractions — Lotte World, Lotte World Tower, Seokchon Lake and Olympic Park. The newly added areas bring a different kind of strength: everyday neighborhood content, food culture, alleyways and a traditional market.

The expansion creates a structure in which tourists visiting major attractions can be guided into the alleys, while visitors already in the alleys can be drawn back toward performances, sports and shopping.

Ultimately, the forum's central argument was that the success of the expanded zone depends less on how much larger it has grown than on how well its parts are connected.

The "LIVE DISTRICT" concept presented at the forum grows from exactly that concern.

Jamsil and Songpa host large-scale concerts, sports matches, festivals and cultural events throughout the year. The problem, participants noted, is that when audiences do not linger in the area, the surge of visitors fails to translate fully into economic benefit for local businesses.

The picture changes if the itinerary is designed so that a visitor coming to Jamsil for a concert has dinner on Songnidan-gil beforehand, then stops by Bangi Matgol or Bangi Market afterward.

A single concert or sports match could then expand into an "urban event" that activates the surrounding commercial district as well.

National Assembly member Park Jeong-hun also submitted materials calling for the zone's expansion to serve as an opportunity to extend the tourist route beyond Lotte World Tower and Seokchon Lake all the way to Songnidan-gil, Bangi Market and Bangi Matgol — combining shopping and leisure with local food culture and alley commerce to develop Jamsil into a multi-stay tourism hub.

Participants particularly discussed ways to channel the visitor demand generated after concerts and sports events into extended stays and local spending, and to bundle festivals, cultural events and commercial revitalization projects together.

A keynote presentation by Ha Jeong-woo, a professor in the Department of Tourism and Cultural Contents at Kyonggi University, was followed by a panel discussion focused on concrete ways to extend tourists' time in the area.

Kim Chang-su, dean of the College of Tourism and Culture at Kyonggi University, proposed using locally distinctive assets — Songnidan-gil, Bangi Matgol and Bangi Market — to create small seasonal festivals and events that would build a tourism identity unique to Jamsil.

He also argued that the typical visit pattern — touring major attractions in a single day and leaving — should give way to one-night or two-night itineraries, and that transportation links between tourism nodes and smart tourism services would need to be strengthened to make that possible.

Yong Seon-jung, chief executive of the Jeonju Tourism Foundation, highlighted the food offerings of the newly added areas. Mapping a tourist route that connects the culinary assets of Songnidan-gil, Bangi Market and Bangi Matgol to the existing zone — combined with domestic and international promotion and nighttime tourism programs — could simultaneously extend stays and boost spending, he said.

Kim Jin-seop, a director at the Daegu Foundation for Arts and Culture's tourism division; Chu Chang-sik, chairman of the Bangi Market Merchants' Cooperative; Ha Dong-jun, a section chief in the Seoul Metropolitan Government's tourism and sports bureau; and Park Mi-jeong, head of Songpa-gu's tourism promotion division, also joined the panel to discuss implementation from the perspectives of the tourism field, traditional markets, and the city and district governments.

One notable feature of the forum was that academics, tourism officials, actual merchants, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Songpa-gu all sat at the same table.

The keyword running through the day's discussion was "connection."

The shared goal was to make Lotte World Tower, Seokchon Lake, Olympic Park, Songnidan-gil, Bangi Matgol and Bangi Market function not as competing destinations but as stops along a single travel itinerary.

Participants said achieving this would require more than producing a tourist map — it would take practical mechanisms to get visitors moving, such as linking performance and game schedules to discounts and events at nearby businesses, or developing nighttime tourism routes.

There was broad agreement that for the zone's expansion to amount to more than an administrative boundary adjustment, tourist-route development, content creation, festival tie-ins, merchant participation, and cooperation among the Seoul Metropolitan Government, Songpa-gu and the private sector would all need to work in tandem.

The approach also reflects a broader shift in how tourism policy success is measured — placing as much weight on how long visitors spend in Songpa and how much they spend locally as on the raw number of tourists who arrive.

Kim set "tangible local impact" as the policy goal for the period following the zone's expansion.

"Expanding the tourism special zone is not completed simply by enlarging the designated area," he said. "Tourists must stay longer, visit more parts of the neighborhood, and have their spending and energy translate into real benefits for local merchants and residents."

"Jamsil already has outstanding assets in tourism, culture, sports and shopping," he added. "Now we need to connect each of those assets into a single tourist route — a structure that brings visitors to Jamsil and then keeps them moving through and staying in Songpa."

Kim also said he intends to carry the ideas raised at the forum beyond the discussion stage and into actual projects with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Songpa-gu.

"I will continue to consult with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, Songpa-gu and local merchants to ensure that the proposals from today's forum lead to real policies and projects," he said. "I will carefully examine the policies, systems and budget support needed at the Seoul Metropolitan Council level to make sure the benefits of tourism revitalization reach local small-business owners and residents."