Gangwon Land pushes to attract more foreign tourists this summer with English camp, beauty festival

A scene from the Asia Model Festival [Gangwon Land]

Gangwon Land is stepping up efforts to draw more foreign tourists this summer, launching a Russian English camp and a beauty festival as part of its push to expand its global visitor base.

Foreign visitors to Gangwon Land rose about 40 percent in the January-to-May period compared with the same period last year. The resort operator plans to build on that momentum by rolling out differentiated content to bring in more international customers.

To break into the Russian market, Gangwon Land will debut the "No. 1 High1, Healing with Nature! English Camp" in early July. The program was developed on the basis of an MOU Gangwon Land and Duwon Sangseon signed in June last year.

Around 100 students and parents from Russia's Far East — including Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and Sakhalin — will travel to High1 Resort via a regular ferry service between Vladivostok and Donghae in early July. Participants will stay for 11 nights and 12 days, taking part in English classes, regional tourism and cultural experience programs. Gangwon Land plans to use the Donghae Port ferry route as a foundation for expanding its Russian inbound tourism base.

The "High1 Beauty Festa" will then run July 23 to 26 at High1 Grand Hotel, doubling as the Korean preliminary round for the 21st High1 Resort Asia Model Festival, scheduled for November. Events will include a fashion show featuring senior representative models from China and Japan, as well as a "Face of K-pop" competition with multinational dance crews.

In the second half of the year, Gangwon Land plans to overhaul its foreign-language website and expand overseas marketing efforts — including cultural exchange programs with Mongolia and France, and performance tourism outreach targeting Singapore and Hong Kong.

Lee Min-ho, acting head of Gangwon Land's tourism marketing division, said the Russian English camp and the beauty festival are "core content for High1 Resort's evolution into a culture- and experience-driven integrated resort that global customers will seek out." He added that the company would "continue developing long-stay tourism products to grow into a globally recognized integrated resort representing South Korea."

terry@heraldcorp.com