Festival and Tourism for Regional Revitalization: A Case of Jeonju Hanok Village Festival

This study discusses the role of the festival in the process of Jeonju Hanok Village which is a tourist attraction. As the expectation about regional economy vitalization is getting higher, the role of contemporary local festival (which is) creating economic effect linked with tourism industry has been emphasized. The JeonjuHanok Village which recorded no more than 100,000 annual visitors in 1999, turned into a touristic attraction with more than 5 million annual visitors in 2014. The JeonjuHanok Village experienced a hollowing effect after falling behind as a preservation area before the 1990s, but started changing drastically along with the Hanok Village development plan for the 2002 World Cup. In order to vitalize JeonjuHanok Village, Jeonju city started to actively host small and big scale festival at the Hanok Village. By changing the location of Pungnam Festival, which is one of the biggest existing festivals in Jeonju city to the Hanok Village, around 300,000 tourists visit the Hanok Village during the Pungnam festival week only. Jeonju city also strived to vitalize private festivals with traditionality at the Hanok Village by supporting private festivals even though they didn't lead the festival directly. Jeonju city supported the Sanjo Festival, a festival organized by a civilian since 1998, and in 2004 Jeonju city supported the Kimjang Festival pivoting around the "Hanok Village Preservation Society" comprised of Hanok Village residents. Moreover Jeonju city invites performances of culture and art organizations that are active around the Hanok Village and by supporting diverse institution and cultural facilities, Jeonju city endeavors to provides more attractions to visitors of the Hanok Village. Through such efforts, the festivals based on diverse traditional cultures has played a huge role in making the JeonjuHanok Village into the most representative traditional cultural touristic attraction of Korea. Especially, the "festival" is considered as one of the most important success factors of the JeonjuHanok Village (Gyeonbuk Daily, 2014.10.16.). It has contributed in enhancing the image during the invigoration process of JeonjuHanok Village and has played the role of a touristic content.