Travel
Discover the unique beauty of Seoul at 2024 Seoul Beauty Travel Week
Seoul Metropolitan Government
September 24, 2024
(Image: Seoul Metropolitan Government)
A journey into authentic beauty accompanied by a comprehensive range of all that Korean wellness brands have to offer, 2024 Seoul Beauty Travel Week will take place for a week from Monday to Sunday, September 23 to 29, 2024, across Seongdong-gu in Seoul, including the Seoul Forest Park.
This year’s Beauty Travel Week is scheduled to take place across Seongdong-gu, centered on the Seoul Forest Park, that is emerging as a new hot place among young Koreans. The event will feature a variety of programs and offers in collaboration with local businesses, with the aim of promoting a culture of sustainable tourism that benefits tourists and local communities alike.
With the theme, “A Weeklong Journey of Discovering the Beauty of Seoul,” this year’s Seoul Beauty Travel Week will feature over 50 parks, galleries and museums, and local shops that offer opportunities for revival, refreshment, and rejuvenation.
The revival category will take visitors to 14 spaces of nature within urban spaces, including the Seoul Forest Park, where they can practice yoga, meditation, and other activities for relaxation.
The Seoul Forest Park, indeed the center of revival-oriented activities, will offer a wide range of wellness-promoting activities for three days from Friday to Sunday, starting with the evening ceremony on Friday night and extending into hiking across Mt.Eungbongsan running, yoga, and meditation.
Visitors will be invited to visit and relax at various spaces set up for this week’s events, including the Maebongsan Palgakjeong Pavilion that offers a panoramic view of Hangang River; Slow Pharmacy, a gardening-themed workshop filled with plants; and Green Lab, a multipurpose cultural space offering a broad array of wellness-promoting activities.
Several wellness-related partners will also participate in this event. The world’s No.1 bean bag sofa brand, ‘Yogibo,’ is collaborating with the mindfulness meditation platform ‘Haru Mind’ to provide a unique and differentiated relaxation experience by combining various Yogibo products with wellness programs, such as family meditation sessions, handpan and world music performances, and Singing Bowl yoga. Additionally, brands like ‘Pulmuone,’ known for its healthy food offerings, ‘New Balance’ which bring creating new balance for imbalanced feet and ‘Poke All Day’ will join in to host a variety of engaging events.
The refreshment corner will introduce visitors to 17 local eateries and cafes. Particularly generating buzz is OFTT, the fusion bunsik bar that has reinterpreted and globalized Korean bunsik items like tteokppokki. The eatery will offer Seoul Ramyun, a special item on the menu, throughout the week.
Other participating eateries include localEAT, a vegan Italian restaurant committed to sourcing vegetables in season locally; Deepin Oksu, specializing in handmade pasta dishes; and OMOT, offering master-crafted traditional tea blends and handicraft works.
Having relaxed and refreshed with the unique offerings of Seoul, visitors will be encouraged to visit 19 local spaces for rejuvenation amid new cultural and artistic experiences.
These spaces include 1Euro_Projects, where you can shop the edit dedicated to lifestyle focusing on urban renewal; Cociety, a multipurpose space of culture and the arts; Seoul Upcycling Plaza, the world’s largest culture park with the zero-waste theme; and 1milliondance, a dance studio.
Amore Seongsu, a novel project of the leading K-beauty brand, AmorePacific, will also be at the scene, introducing the works of bonsai artist Choi Mun-jeong of Oita along with a special weeklong program.
xCREW, a mobile activity app open to Korean and global users alike, will also organize a variety of activities across Seongdong-gu in relation to the Beauty Travel Week.
Choi Won-seok, the renowned space planner who is also the CEO of Project Rent Incorporated, has been working with the Beauty Travel Week organizers since the very beginning, applying his reputation as “the god of Korean popup stores” to good use to promote local businesses.
Choi, who has been working for years to fight the gentrification of Seongsu, explained his aim in joining the event: “We try to use this opportunity to highlight charming local businesses not just in Seongsu-dong, but across the wider Seongdong-gu. We went out of our ways to find and introduce unique local businesses based in the district, including in Oksu-dong, Songjeong-dong, Majang-dong, and Wangsipni, trying to establish a culture of tourism that brings local communities and tourists together.”
Visit any of the participating stores and spaces during the Seoul Beauty Travel Week and you will be able to use the special discount coupons and taste special items on the menu. Go to the festival’s website at www.seoulbeautytravel.com and the official Instagram, www.instagram.com/seoulbeautytravelweek for more details on available benefits and programs.
Kim Yeong-hwan, head of the Tourism and Sports Bureau in the Seoul Metropolitan Government, explained: “The Seoul Beauty Travel Week aims at acquainting visitors with the unique charm of the festival’s community, catering to the growing preference for experience over ownership. This year, we have worked with experts to develop programs thoroughly designed to introduce the beauty and charms of Seongdong-gu to festivalgoers. We sincerely hope everyone comes here to enjoy.”