Image: City of Busan ()
Haeundae’s Blue Line Park was selected as the ‘Star of Korea Tourism’, which is considered the Nobel Prize in the tourism field.
The ‘Star of Korea Tourism’ is awarded by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism by discovering and awarding tourism resources, local governments, organizations, and individuals who have increased interest in domestic tourism and contributed to the development of Korean tourism.
Starting in 2010 and celebrating its 12th anniversary this year, the Busan Tourism Organization won the 2016 Award for the ‘Original Downtown Story Tour’ in the area of unique tourism resources and local traditional tourism resources.
The winner of the Korea Tourism Star Award was finally selected after nominations and applications in August, written evaluation by experts, on-site inspection, and a decision by the selection committee.
It is special in that it was finally selected through an on-site evaluation by experts on attractiveness as a tourist destination and contribution to development after national awareness and satisfaction evaluation and big data analysis.
In addition, this award is all the more brilliant because the city, Haeundae-gu, and Blue Line Park Co., Ltd. have mutually cooperated to select this year’s star of tourism.
The award-winning tourism resource was created as a resting place for citizens in 2020 after collecting opinions from civic groups on the part of the discontinued Donghae Nambu Line (2013), where it allowed people to walk along the scenic sea section from Mipo to Songjeong.
In addition, old railroad facilities were developed in an eco-friendly way, and the seaside train (Blue Line Park), which operates with all seats facing the sea, was commercialized as a tourism product, establishing itself as a must-visit popular tourist destination visited by more than 700,000 people every year.
The Green Railway (Olympic Intersection – Songjeong area, which has a total length of 9.8km, is a barrier-free tourist destination where wheelchairs and others can move freely, and is well-received by both local residents and tourists.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plan to support intensive media publicity and overseas marketing which is expected to generate billions of won and enhancing the status of Busan as an international tourist city.
