CIFAL Jeju Promoting Cultural Tourism Development
7 July 2016, Jeju, Republic of Korea – CIFAL Jeju convened a workshop, Capacity Building on Cultural Tourism Development, in Jeju on 27 June to 1 July in collaboration with United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific (UCLG ASPAC) and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province. This workshop brought together sixteen government officials (central, state and local), NGO workers and private company representatives from six different countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Countries represented in the workshop included Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The event served as a platform to build capacities on cultural tourism development including strategies to make sustainable tourism policies based on culture as well as challenges and opportunities for applying cultural tourism concept in the economic, social and environmental context. This was the first workshop on cultural tourism development organized by CIFAL Jeju. Following the two workshops on sustainable tourism development, which focused on environmental protection, the workshop on cultural tourism development has successfully completed stressing the important value of culture in tourism policy development.
Nine resource persons consisting of researchers, experts in international organizations, policy developers shared their knowledge and expertise on culture and tourism policies; Ms. TAE Eunji from United Nations World Tourism Organization(UNWTO); Dr. Bernadia Tjandradewi from UCLG ASPAC; Dr. Kihyung Keum from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Republic of Korea; Mr. John Smithies from Cultural Development Network, Australia(CDN); Dr. Won-Hee Lee from Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, Republic of Korea; Mr. Jordi Pascual from Agenda 21 for Culture- UCLG; Dr. Jeh-Hong Ryu from the Center of Public Spaces, Republic of Korea; Ms. Eunhee park from Viaart, Republic of Korea; Ms. Eunhae Jung, a freelancer artist from Republic of Korea.
The lecture and group activities focused on key topics including global trends of cultural tourism within the framework of SDGs; the economic outcomes of cultural tourism development; Culture 21 and its relation with cultural tourism; Korean wave and cultural tourism; public place making; cultural tourism driven by local people and artists.
Under the theme of cultural tourism, this workshop was specially set up in an artistic café located in the old town of Jeju, the area which once declined but is being transformed into an artistic place. The participants were able to experience the current trend of tourism policies and experience good practices in this old town of Jeju. It concluded with a visit to “Jeju Stone Park” and “LEE Jung-Seop Art Street” after traditional food making activities in local communities.