K-pop group RESCENE receives honorary citizenship of Geoje

K-pop girl group RESCENE has been named an honorary citizen of Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province.

The group received the certificate Saturday at Hanwha Resort Geoje Belvedere, becoming the first celebrity to receive the honor and the 70th honorary citizen of the city, Yonhap said Monday.

Geoje city said it selected RESCENE in recognition of the group's consistent efforts to promote the city and its contribution to raising Geoje's profile as an attractive tourism destination.

Geoje is the hometown of RESCENE member Woni and the birthplace of the viral catchphrase "Geoje Yahoo!" that helped bring the group to wider public attention.

"We are grateful for your consistent promotion of Geoje with such deep affection for the city," Mayor Byeon Gwang-yong said. "Thanks to RESCENE's efforts, we were able to introduce Geoje to people of all generations and draw far greater attention to it."

In practice, RESCENE and the "Geoje Yahoo!" catchphrase have had a positive impact on visitor numbers, tourism spending and the city's brand reputation.

According to Geoje city, a big data research unit within the Gyeongnam Research Institute analyzed SK Telecom mobile population data and NH NongHyup Card sales figures and found that visitor numbers and tourism spending rose around the time the "Geoje Yahoo!" meme went viral and after RESCENE was appointed the city's tourism ambassador in May. Yonhap reported the findings Oct. 14.

During the peak summer holiday period from late July to early August this year, visitors in their teens and 20s from other regions increased 6.6 percent compared with the same period last year.

Card sales around Deokpo Beach, which RESCENE visited, also roughly doubled during this year's summer holiday season compared with last year.

Geoje city added that online searches related to "Geoje" showed a growing share of tourism- and travel-related terms, while the proportion of shipbuilding- and industry-related terms declined slightly.

The city also said Geoje ranked second in the national city brand reputation index released by the Korea Corporate Reputation Research Institute last August, trailing only Seoul.

The "Geoje Yahoo!" phrase originated from a casual remark by RESCENE members Woni and Minami during a conversation, and went on to become a widely shared meme and catchphrase.