Ulsan Prepares for KTX Opening

With the KTX Station set to open in November, the City of Ulsan is getting ready to promote Ulsan across the nation and across the world. Korea.net had a rather informative article on the City of Ulsan’s plans for the opening.

Ulsan City Hall seems to be going all out with the promotion of the city. From providing free city tours to people travelling here by rail to holding travel fairs in Beijing to attract foreign travelers. One of the more curious methods is this one:

To encourage tourists to stay longer in Ulsan, the City of Ulsan will give KRW 10,000 per tourist per day to travel agencies and chartered bus companies provided that they attract groups of 10 or more tourists (domestic or foreign) who spend more than one night at a local hotel.

I am happy to see the city start to promote itself. There are many people here that have stayed in Ulsan for a long time and (for the most part) have good things to say about this city. I am most impressed with the improvements that the city has made recently with the bicycle paths along the Taehwa and the green spaces that they have but across the city.

However, the promotion once again falls short to entice Western travelers and my concern that with the amount of effort that they are putting into this  promotion they may only end up with tours of ajummas and ajeoshis.  With that being said, what would you like to see promoted for Ulsan? How would promote Ulsan to the rest of the world?

It is my belief that there are many places and events in Korea that are promoted to an international level and receive a lot of attention from Westerners. The Mud Festival and The Seoul Lantern Festival are prime examples. So how do we promote Ulsan and it’s many scenic sights to the fickle western traveler?

Take a look at the full article here and let us know what you think in the comment section below.