[Community Discovery] Yongsan-gu strives to deliver vitality again to Itaewon

Choi Jeong-kyu, CEO of Jonny Dumpling, a Shandong-style dumpling restaurant situated in Itaewon, Yongsan-gu, central Seoul, displays on the difficult days his enterprise has confronted because the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic crowd crush incident almost two years in the past.

The native restaurant, well-known for its half-moon-shaped dumplings, confronted a big decline in clients over the previous 4 years. Nonetheless, it has steadily regained its footing after being chosen as one in every of 30 consultant native manufacturers in a Yongsan-gu Workplace venture aimed toward reviving struggling companies within the as soon as tragedy-hit district.

“I hope that the 30 native companies will be capable of create constructive synergy with one another via scheduled collaborative occasions that may assist to revitalize our companies and Itaewon as a complete,” he mentioned.

The branding venture entails 30 native enterprises — together with 20 eating places, three clothes retailers and 7 leisure venues, comparable to bars and golf equipment — which have solely run their companies for years.

In accordance with the Yongsan-gu Workplace, the 30 companies had been chosen based mostly on surveys and evaluations by guests to the world and enterprise consultants. The district workplace plans to work with the companies via 2025 to reinforce not solely its personal model worth, but additionally to lift Itaewon’s model worth.

The 30 native enterprises had been introduced as part of the “Hey Itaewon” venture, which the Yongsan-gu Workplace has labored on with the Seoul Metropolitan Authorities and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups since March final 12 months.

At first, the district workplace launched money vouchers that could possibly be used like money with a 20 p.c low cost at native companies in Itaewon, which considerably contributed to elevating the native companies’ gross sales numbers. It has additionally hosted numerous native occasions, comparable to meals festivals that includes quite a lot of world cuisines and reside performances to take care of a gentle variety of guests to Itaewon.

This 12 months, the district workplace has upgraded its enterprise revival venture with the objective of rebranding Itaewon into what it calls a “glocal” neighborhood.

Combining “world” and “native,” the district workplace hopes for companies in Itaewon sooner or later to embrace the glocal pattern, because it hopes that the neighborhood can grow to be an atmosphere that’s globally open and welcoming to all with distinctive, native companies that may solely be present in Itaewon.

With that in thoughts, the Yongsan-gu Workplace has designated “Welcome all Itaewon” because the model slogan for Itaewon’s native companies and the neighborhood, to ascertain it as a spot the place “anybody and everybody can really feel snug simply the way in which they’re.”

Shifting on

The district workplace goals to take the initiative to the following degree with collaborative tasks between companies and influencers or energy manufacturers to extend the companies’ consciousness and competencies to most people this fall.

Although particulars relating to collaborations can’t be disclosed but, a Yongsan-gu Workplace official instructed The Korea Herald that some examples of doable tasks embrace “eating places developing with menus with movie star cooks, outfitters promoting restricted version garments designed by well-known designers, musicians or style administrators, in addition to inviting filmmakers to develop quick movies and commercials concerning the native companies and Itaewon.”

The district workplace additionally plans to conduct promotional occasions in collaboration with “energy manufacturers” whose identification matches properly with Itaewon’s tradition.

Along with final 12 months’s native occasions, the Yongsan-gu Workplace plans to carry extra such festivities that “show Itaewon’s enjoyable and thrilling experiences.” The district workplace already hosted an occasion of an analogous nature on June 15, with two extra to be held in September and November this 12 months. Future occasions in Itaewon will function reside performances in addition to discuss exhibits and a pop-up retailer, together with works designed by native artists based mostly in Itaewon.

By means of December, the district workplace additionally hopes to brainstorm additional advertising and promotional techniques to make higher use of Itaewon’s native companies to advertise the neighborhood’s touristic worth to vacationers from abroad. An Instagram account for occasions and every part about Itaewon has helped the district goal “a wider viewers.”

“With the companies that make Itaewon distinctive on the focal point and lots of different occasions and promotional tasks the district workplace has in line, the Yongsan-gu Workplace hopes to model Itaewon as a world industrial district identified by all,” Gong Gyeong-eon, an official on the Yongsan-gu Workplace, instructed The Korea Herald.

This text is the tenth installment in a collection of function tales and interviews that delve deeper into the hidden tales of Seoul’s 25 districts. — Ed.