Climate change wreaks havoc on major tourist draws

Pyeongchang Trout Festival at Odaecheon, a stream in Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province in 2022. (Pyeongchang Trout Festival Committee)
Pyeongchang Trout Festival at Odaecheon, a stream in Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province in 2022. (Pyeongchang Trout Festival Committee)

As winters have become warmer in South Korea, festivals that rely on freezing temperatures are being pushed back or canceled.

Organizers have postponed the opening of the Pyeongchang Trout Festival, one of the country’s signature winter festivals held in Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province, that invites visitors to fish for trout on a frozen stream.

The event, now rescheduled for Jan. 3-Feb. 2, had to factor in the slower freezing of the stream. Ice on the stream needs to be at least 20 centimeters thick, according to an organizing committee official.

“The ice now stands at 10 to 15 centimeters thick and we expect it to reach 20 centimeters by the time we open the festival early next year,” the official said, noting that even if the desired thickness is not met, the festival, drawing around 200,000 visitors annually, will open as planned.

“We will limit the number of people allowed on the thick ice to distribute the weight,” the official added.

Pyeongchang festival officials are not alone in attributing their difficulties to climate change.

The Inje Icefish Festival, slated for next year, has been called off entirely. Drilling holes on the frozen river for smelt fishing near the Soyang River in Gangwon Province is no longer possible, said officials in charge of the event, which began in 1998.

“The days of the river freezing thick are long gone now. The level of water in the area is too high in the first place,” an official said.

The rising water level at the Soyang River Dam since the autumn’s torrential rains contributed to the festival’s cancellation, the official added, noting that frequent rains caused by global warming disrupt dam operations and related events.

According to the official, the festival has been scrapped three times over the same issue -- in 2016, 2024 and 2025.