Gangwon Province is showcasing its tourism appeal in the heart of Japan's Chubu region — the hometown of Minami, a member of RESCENE, one of South Korea's biggest acts right now.
RESCENE members recently visited tourist sites across Donghae, filming a travel variety program and taking in the city's many attractions.
The Gangwon Tourism Foundation said Tuesday that public and private tourism officials from Gangwon Province recently participated in the "2026 K-Tourism Business Day in Nagoya," held at the Hilton Nagoya, to promote Gangwon tourism to local industry players in central Japan and develop what they called a "third inbound market" beyond Tokyo and Osaka.
Nagoya, where the event was held, is the central city of Japan's Chubu region — encompassing Aichi Prefecture, Minami's hometown, as well as Gifu, Mie and Shizuoka — and is counted among Japan's three major metropolitan areas alongside Tokyo and Osaka.
The city is also known in South Korea as the place where baseball star Sun Dong-yeol earned the nickname "Sun of Nagoya" while playing there, and where Lee Jung-hoo was born during his father Lee Jong-beom's time with the Nagoya-based Chunichi Dragons.
The prefectures of the Chubu region have pursued cross-border cooperation through the "Shoryu-do" project, fostering mutual growth in the tourism industry and achieving the fastest tourism growth of any region in Japan.
While Goguryeo is said to have spread its culture to the Niigata and Gunma areas in central and northern Japan, Silla is believed to have introduced advanced culture to areas such as Gifu and Kanagawa in the central region. Baekje and Gaya are known to have influenced the central and southern parts of the country.
Gangwon's tourism officials used the event to expand their reach into the local travel industry. The Korea Tourism Organization's Osaka branch organized the event to build a foundation for growing inbound demand from the region and to invigorate business exchanges between the South Korean and Japanese tourism industries.
About 25 domestic organizations took part in the event, including local governments, regional tourism organizations and tourism venture companies, while roughly 100 representatives from major Japanese travel agencies and airlines — including JTB and Hankyu Travel — attended on the Japanese side.
The Gangwon Tourism Foundation participated in a Korea tourism briefing and one-on-one business consultations, presenting a range of Gangwon tourism offerings. The briefing focused particularly on regional tourism content linked to local airports, while the consultations involved in-depth discussions with local travel agency representatives about the potential for developing new travel products.
At a subsequent "Korea-Japan Tourism Exchange Night" dinner and networking session, participants built cooperative ties through direct exchanges with key figures in Japan's travel industry. Local industry representatives expressed strong interest in Gangwon's distinctive tourism resources and MICE infrastructure, and voiced high expectations for concrete product development partnerships going forward.
Yoon Tae-hwan, a director at the Gangwon Tourism Foundation, said the event had "once again impressed upon the central Japan industry the strong competitiveness and appeal of Gangwon's tourism content." He added that the foundation would "make every effort to develop tailored tourism products and attract visitors so that Japanese tourists can come to Gangwon in all four seasons, building on solid partnerships with major local travel agencies to broaden the base of Japan's inbound market beyond Tokyo and Osaka."
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