Hello. This is UniqueGood's Experience Trend Letter. The cold winter has passed and spring, the queen of seasons, has arrived. With warmer weather encouraging more outdoor activities, various festivals across the nation are waiting for tourists. Looking at the Korea Tourism Organization's monthly festival calendar, you can see that dozens of festivals are held nationwide every single day.
But are there still some of you who only think of conventional festivals that rely solely on stage performances with celebrity guests? Generic festivals no longer work. Local festivals now need to transform into something 'playable.' In this Experience Trend Letter, we'd like to introduce various festival venues where participants can experience with their whole body.
Exploring Regions Through Outdoor Mission Games
Sometimes you might visit tourist attractions or famous festivals only to find them crowded with tourists, returning without truly experiencing the local area. In such moments, you might think, 'It would be great to have my own guide who could show me hidden gems that only locals know.'
Perhaps for this reason, outdoor mission games are emerging where people can play games while exploring various parts of a region. With just a little interest, you can discover various games being utilized at festivals: 'Find the Sardine Thief!' at Yangrim Alley Biennale, 'Would You Like Some Salted Seafood?' at Busan's Old Downtown Alley Festival, 'Secret of the Elixir of Life' at Hayeong Olle Walking Festival, and 'In Search of the Blue Dragon' at Jincheon Deungnyongmun Festival.
Treasure Hunting Becomes a Festival: Real Treasure Festival, Iksan Treasure Hunt Festival
As many of you probably know, when it comes to treasure hunting, Realworld cannot be left out. The 'Real Treasure Festival,' the world's largest treasure hunt festival planned jointly by UniqueGood Company and Gyeonggi Province in November 2023, saw 3,040 participants and was registered in the Guinness World Records for 'The Largest scavenger hunt.'
The significance of this festival doesn't lie simply in the large number of participants. The former Gyeonggi Provincial Government building where the Real Treasure Festival was held had become a space with fewer visitors after the provincial government moved to a new building. However, this treasure hunt festival increased the influx of people, contributing to regional revitalization.
This image of treasure hunting creating population flow is something that those considering tourism and festivals should take note of.
Jeollabuk-do Iksan City is home to Korea's only jewelry industrial complex. Iksan City operates an industry-integrated cultural content festival to promote this, called the 'Iksan Treasure Hunt Festival.' The second festival held from September 1-3, 2023, offered a 1-carat diamond as a prize each day, and featuring treasure hunting as the main attraction seemed to stimulate many people's interest.
According to Iksan City, a total of 16,000 people participated in the three-day second festival in 2023. They also reported that participants from outside Iksan accounted for about 50%, with many visitors being young people in their 20s and 30s and families, evaluating the festival results as successful.
Enjoying Regional Tourism in the City: Pop-up Stores
Tourism and pop-up stores - do these seem like unrelated terms? However, through pop-up stores, you can promote regional attractions and provide experiences to people planning trips or those unfamiliar with the area. Perhaps for this reason, we can recently see public institutions responsible for regional tourism operating urban pop-up stores.
Gangwon Tourism Foundation x Realworld's 'Bus to Anywhere'
In September 2023, UniqueGood Company operated the 'Bus to Anywhere' pop-up store in collaboration with Gangwon Tourism Foundation to promote Gangwon Province's former mining areas (Taebaek, Samcheok, Yeongwol, Jeongseon). This pop-up store was designed as an exploration of four zones (Taebaek 365 Safe Town Zone, Samcheok Maritime Cable Car Zone, Yeongwol Byeolmaro Observatory Zone, Jeongseon Hwaam Cave Zone) following the wizard 'Puri,' and over 4,000 people visited during the 10 days to experience the charm of Gangwon Province's former mining areas.
Korea Tourism Organization x Realworld, Cultural Tourism Festival Pop-up
'Corner-to-Corner Store' in Seongsu
UniqueGood Company also operates the cultural tourism festival pop-up store 'Corner-to-Corner Store' in collaboration with the Korea Tourism Organization. 'Corner-to-Corner Store' is a mart-concept pop-up store featuring 15 domestic festivals held in May. Rather than boring, standardized promotional methods, it was designed as a hip pop-up store that matches the MZ generation's perspective to change perceptions of regional festivals and enable young generations to enjoy cultural tourism festivals.
This 'Corner-to-Corner Store' is a somewhat suspicious but fun-filled space. Participants become part-time workers at the mart and must fulfill orders, discovering various festival-related props throughout the mart and interacting with immersive technology to learn the mart's secrets. For example, when given an order to 'find a beautiful photo zone where butterflies flutter gorgeously,' exploring the space leads to discovering that such an experience can be had at the 'Hampyeong Butterfly Festival.' Through experience rather than simple exhibition, people realize the joy of festivals.
How did people react to the 'Corner-to-Corner Store,' designed to help visitors discover the hidden charms of cultural tourism festivals through an attractive story? Over a thousand people visited in just one day, creating a real crowd! As expected, the unique experiential approach generated an enthusiastic response. You can feel the excitement just from the photos and videos, right?
Particularly, participants actively posted about their experiences on social media. On Instagram alone, over 500 posts about Corner-to-Corner Store were made during just the weekend, confirming the principle that engaging experiences create viral effects.
'Corner-to-Corner Store' operates from April 12-27, 2024, at UniqueGood Company's offline space 'Realworld Seongsu,' located in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul.
Festival Fun Evolves
As we've seen, dozens of festivals are held nationwide every day. For our local festivals to stand out among these diverse festivals, they must provide new, different experiences from before. As we've explored, local festivals are evolving to be more playable so participants can feel the charm of their regions. We conclude this Experience Trend Letter by requesting much consideration and various experiments so that regional festivals can showcase their unique reasons for existence.