Lighting Festival at The Garden of Morning Calm The Garden of Morning Calm in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, is hosting its annual Lighting Festival until March 14. According to the Garden of Morning Calm, it is the first light festival in Korea to add lights to natural surroundings. The environment-friendly LED lights shine throughout the 330,000-square-meter garden. Admissions cost 9,500 won p...

Wolhwawon, a traditional Chinese garden located in the center of Suwon, the largest city of Gyeonggi Province, is open to the surrounding landscape, erasing boundaries between indoors and outdoors and offering visitors a taste of the Chinese way of life. Open since 2006, the garden, which is typical of 17th-century architecture in China’s southern Guangdong province, attracts residents looking t...

Turning pandemic into an opportunity, wilderness traveler readies himself for cooking in the South Pole

Gyodongdo, an island in Incheon, west of Seoul, lies right below the western sea border with North Korea. Just 2 to 3 kilometers away from the North’s South Hwanghae Province and separated only by a stretch of water, it’s quite possible for visitors to get a peek at the reclusive nation with their own eyes. The cross-border tensions have waxed and waned for decades since the separation of the tw...

“It is sad that we cannot enjoy traveling as we please as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. We hope Koreans and tourists can travel freely in the near future, visiting the 100 Must-Visit Tourism Spots of Korea,” Choi Bo-guen, head of the Culture Ministry’s Tourism Policy Bureau, said. For more information about the 100 Must-Visit Tourism Spots of Korea, check the KTO’s official website at www.vis...

New books examine global travel trends

The highlight of the package is the yin yoga and aroma therapy offered on the first day of the package and a singing bowl meditation and sound therapy offered on the second day. Mayfield has invited yoga and meditation experts, Park Sang-a and Choi Ju-hyeon, of Yoga & More to lead the programs. Park, who will lead the yin yoga, is yoga trainer who has studied at India’s Mysuru for two years. Yin...

Enhance Demand for trips with those closest, such as families, couples and friends, increased. According to the comments made on travel-related posts on social media, users thought of their families, friends and pets. Mentions of package tours decreased in comparison to the year before. The decrease was interpreted to be a reflection of people’s anxiety in traveling with a large number of unspe...

South Korean tourism businesses that are suffering due to the pandemic will be eligible for additional loans from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. A total of 594 billion won ($546.57 million) will be provided in the form of additional loans, while repayment may be deferred for 100 billion won worth of loans that are due next year. “We made changes by actively reflecting various feed...

Customers complain about global platform operator’s refund policy

Stepping into the modern Seoul Station, South Korea’s central train station, one might wonder how far back the history of Korean trains and railroads goes. Only one hour from Seoul Station by subway, the Railroad Museum in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, offers a glimpse into more than 100 years of history of Korean trains and railroads. The museum is run by national railway operator Korail. In the ...

ROVANIEMI, Finland (AFP) -- In Finland’s snowy far north, international visitors normally flood the Santa Claus Village amusement park, in search of reindeer rides, snow castles and a meeting with the jolly man himself. Under the pandemic travel restrictions, however, crowds in the Lapland town of Rovaniemi have dwindled to just a trickle and the joyful winter wonderland feels ghostly and abando...

The annual Korea Travel Expo is being held online for the first time due to the pandemic situation until Tuesday. Around 120 organizations, including Korea Tourism Organization and local governments, are participating in the online expo hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and run by Tourism and Korea Tourism Association aimed at providing information on travel after the pandemic has gone a...

Wanju Gotgam Fesitval The annual Wanju Gotgam Fesitval is being held virtually this year, due to the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wanju, a county in North Jeolla Province, is famous for gotgam, or dried persimmon. Wanju gotgam was presented to the royal court during the Joseon era. The county produces about 9,300 tons of gotgam every year. The annual festival draws about 30,000 visitors...

Anticipating arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, travel agencies launch new tour package deals, but limits exist