The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) declared the foreign tourist hospitality campaign, "2026 Global Festa Check-in," at the Boryeong Mud Festival site in South Chungcheong Province on the 31st to foster six major global festivals.
The campaign was designed to provide reliable food and related information for foreign tourists, taking advantage of the opening of the Boryeong Mud Festival, which has established itself as a global festival. Officials from global festivals—including the MCST, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the KTO, as well as Boryeong, Suwon, Andong, Jinju, and Hwacheon—attended the event to announce three core tasks: ▲ fair pricing, ▲ foreign tourist hospitality, and ▲ unique regional experiences, pledging to implement them. Following this, attendees discussed joint measures to improve global festivals to make them more foreign-friendly.
During the on-site inspection, officials checked the reception readiness by touring food pop-ups and global festival promotional booths. In particular, they verified reasonable festival food services by directly comparing the disclosed information of “Meokgeori Alio”* with actual on-site food information.
* A service that discloses information such as menu items, prices, and weights of festival foods up to three days prior to the event, available on the KTO festival information page (korean.vistkorea.or.kr/kfes).
The KTO also introduced various experiential programs on-site to promote global festivals and related tourism content. To encourage foreign tourists to visit the six global festivals, the organization operated programs such as a "Where's Waldo" stamp tour, a sea travel safety culture promotion event, and an on-site verification event for Meokgeori Alio, successfully drawing the attention of festival visitors.
Park Jung-woong, Head of the National Tourism Division at the KTO, stated:
"We will enhance the competitiveness of regional tourism by fostering regional festivals, including the six global festivals, into tourism content sought by people around the world. We will continue to expand trust-based services like Meokgeori Alio and create a festival environment where pricing, hospitality, and experiences are in harmony, thereby elevating the global competitiveness of South Korean festivals."
Meanwhile, the "Global Festival" project is a three-year intensive support program promoted by the MCST and the KTO to develop regional festivals into world-class tourism content. The six selected festivals are:
Boryeong Mud Festival, South Chungcheong Province (July 24 – August 9)
Incheon Pentaport Music Festival (July 31 – August 2)
Andong International Mask Dance Festival, North Gyeongsang Province (September 25 – October 4)
Jinju Namgang Yudeung (Lantern) Festival, South Gyeongsang Province (October 3–18)
Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival, Gyeonggi Province (October 4–11)
Hwacheon Sancheoneo (Mountain Trout) Festival, Gangwon Province (January 2027)
In addition, the KTO is focusing on promoting four preliminary global festivals: the Daegu Chimac Festival (July 1–5), the Jeongnamjin Jangheung Water Festival (July 25 – August 2), the Busan International Rock Festival (October 2–5), and the Sunchang Fermented Soybean Products Festival (October 16–18).
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