Tongyeong, Geoje, and Goseong begin to attract tourists with themed exhibitions and events using media art

Themes such as Tong Tong-yeong exhibition, withdrawal from Heungnam, and dinosaurs… “Popular reviews for use of experiential content”

(Tongyeong = Yonhap News) Reporter Jeong Jong-ho = Geoje-si, Tongyeong-si, and Goseong-gun, local governments on the southern coast of Gyeongsangnam-do, are trying to attract tourists with various exhibitions and events using 'media art' (art using mass media).

According to each local government on the 4th, Tongyeong City was selected for the '2026 National Heritage Media Art' contest hosted by the National Heritage Promotion Agency, and related exhibitions and events will be held at Tongjeyeong at night from the 18th of last month to the 11th of this year.

In this event with the theme of ‘Tongyeong, the time of prosperity, and the era of light,’ the poem depicts the past 400 years of Tongyeong using media art techniques.

Visitors can enjoy a feast of lights for about 80 minutes along eight major viewing routes, including Mangilru, Jiguamun, 12 Workshops, Baekhwadang, Huwon, Unjudang, and Sebyeonggwan, from the entrance to Jeongjeongyeong.

The response from visitors to experiencing cultural heritage through new artistic techniques is also good.

An official from Tongyeong City said, “The exhibitions and events that decorate Tongyeong with media art are receiving favorable reviews from residents and visitors.”

This response is also proven numerically.

The media art event, which was held as a public contest project like this year for about a month from September to October last year, attracted about 130,000 visitors to Tongjeyeong and was found to have achieved an economic effect worth 20 billion won.

Considering that the total number of visitors to Tongjeyeong in 2024 is approximately 70,000, this means that nearly twice as many people visited the media art event in one month last year.

Along with this event, Tongyeong City is also pursuing a private investment project to turn the Tongyeong Undersea Tunnel into a media art theme park.

Nearby Geoje City is also seeing the effect of attracting tourists through media art.

The main contents of the Heungnam Evacuation Memorial Park, which opened in Jangseungpo-dong, Geoje last June, were also created using media art.

In seven exhibition spaces in the memorial park, stories related to the Heungnam evacuation operation are told using media art techniques.

The number of visitors exceeded 24,000 in just one month after opening, perhaps because of the advantage of being able to experience the story of the Korean War, which was previously only known through photos or books.

In Goseong, the site of the first dinosaur footprint fossil discovery in Korea, the ‘Goseong Dino Play Center’ is in operation.

At the Media Art Hall on the second floor, you can experience dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period, which attracts visitors with children on weekends.

An official from a local government in the province said, "It is not easy to attract tourists because content such as cultural heritage, historical events, and dinosaurs are not relevant or have abstract aspects, but media art can create content that visitors can directly experience, so local governments seem to be actively utilizing it."