Inje-gun selected as Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism smart tourism city in 2023
Nature and AI are set to converge in the Baekdamsa area on the western slopes of Seoraksan, one of South Korea's most celebrated mountain retreats.
Inje-gun announced Monday that it will complete a "Smart Healing Center" — a next-generation resort space blending the restorative power of nature with advanced smart technology — in the Baekdam area of Yongdae-ri, Buk-myeon, by the end of this year.
The county aims to transform itself into a next-generation stay-and-experience smart tourism city.
The Smart Healing Center will serve as the anchor facility of Inje-gun's smart tourism city development project, linking the pristine natural environment of the Baekdam area with digital content to create a stay-oriented healing tourism space where visitors can rest, linger and explore.
Inje-gun was selected in March 2023 for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's smart tourism city development program and has been advancing the project centered on the Baekdam area of Yongdae-ri, Buk-myeon. Total investment stands at 9.5 billion won (approximately $6.9 million), comprising 4.5 billion won in national government funds, 1.35 billion won in provincial funds and 3.65 billion won in county funds.
The project will also establish an integrated service platform and a smart shelter bus stop near Baekdamsa temple.
The Smart Healing Center will rise to two above-ground floors with a total floor area of 769.38 square meters at 907 Yongdae-ri, Buk-myeon. Construction is currently 30 percent complete, and the county plans to finish both the facility and its associated content by December.
The first floor will house a lobby and welcome lounge, a Smart Forest space and a foot spa cafe. The Smart Forest will use immersive visuals and sounds drawn from Inje's natural landscape to recreate the sensation of being in the woods, and is designed for multiple uses — meditation, rest, small-scale exhibitions and screenings.
The second floor will feature a workcation space, a multipurpose room and an AI Han Yong-un tea ceremony experience room. The room will let visitors engage with an AI-rendered version of the Buddhist monk and independence activist Han Yong-un through a tea gathering that explores his philosophy, literature and tea culture.
Once complete, the Smart Healing Center is expected to strengthen the stay-oriented tourism infrastructure of the Baekdam area by linking with existing attractions such as Baekdamsa temple, Manhae Village and the dried pollack village of Yongdae-ri. The county plans to steer the area away from pass-through tourism toward a model where visitors stay and unwind, while also supporting the local economy.
Inje-gun already provides tourists with seamless smart tourism services through its integrated service platform, covering everything from advance information and reservations to payment and on-site use.
The county also plans to break ground on a smart shelter near Baekdamsa temple in June to improve visitor convenience and safety, advancing both the enhancement of smart tourism content and the expansion of supporting infrastructure to raise the overall quality of tourism services in the Baekdam area.
"Through the Smart Healing Center — which grafts AI, media art and other smart technologies onto Inje-gun's pristine natural assets — we will offer tourists new experiences of rest and discovery, and channel demand for wellness tourism and workcation stays into economic vitality for the Baekdam area," said Kang Hui-suk, director of autonomous administration at Inje-gun.
abc@heraldcorp.com
