Busan Metropolitan City and the Busan Center for Creative Economy and Innovation are promoting the city's brand as "a city where work and leisure coexist," aiming to attract long-term foreign tourists. The plan is to target the global market by combining a travel platform with a worldwide user base and Busan's tourism and business infrastructure.
Busan Metropolitan City and the Busan Center for Creative Economy and Innovation announced Saturday that they will launch a "Busan-style Workation Global Promotion" for foreigners in cooperation with global online travel platform Agoda. The promotion will go into full swing starting December 6, targeting major inbound markets including Japan, China and Taiwan. Agoda will establish a dedicated page on its platform to intensively promote Busan workation content and will develop global marketing through various channels, including social media.
The city has shifted the previously complex foreign participation procedures to an online travel platform, significantly simplifying the reservation and verification process. Foreign participants can complete pre-verification with only their passport and proof of employment, then receive accommodation discounts by using a dedicated promotional code provided on Agoda.
This is a strategic move to convert tourists from "visitors" to "long-stay consumers." The goal is to induce long-term stays by targeting digital nomads and global corporate employees, while expanding local consumption in accommodation, food and beverage, and culture.
Through this partnership, the city and the Busan Center for Creative Economy and Innovation plan to establish a global standard workation operating model. In particular, they intend to strengthen differentiated content compared to competing cities by combining marine tourism resources with urban infrastructure, and to secure a foundation for continuous foreign visitor inflows.
"Cooperation with a global platform will be a turning point in promoting the Busan workation brand to the world," Acting Mayor Kim Kyung-deok said. "We will continuously enhance infrastructure and convenience so that talent from around the world can experience both work and leisure in Busan."
