POSTED: November 28th 2011
NewsUpdate
CHOI: Gangwon is expecting 10 percent tourism spike and Dream Program adds coaches and athletes
LAURA WALDEN / Sports Features Communications
TAMPA/PYEONGCHANG: In this second segment of our interview with Gangwon Province Governor Moon-Soon Choi, SportsFeatures.com learned more about the tourism expectations and new plans for the Dream Program.
The winter sports season is just getting off the ground in the Olympic areas so there is a lot of excitement as to what the "Olympic Effect" will have on the region.
In an effort to grow winter sports tourism, Gangwon launched the Dream Program back in February of 2004 during an earlier bid, giving young people in warmer climates the opportunity to come and experience winter sports firsthand in PyeongChang.
It quickly became a worthy and valuable means for developing winter sports, therefore it has become an annual event for the province. This year the program has been amplified to not only include young Olympic hopefuls, but real athletes and coaches too.
What kind of numbers are you expecting to visit the Olympic areas in Gangwon this season?
MOON-SOON CHOI: Gangwon Province has hosted several snow-themed winter festivals annually and we are preparing various festival programs related to the Winter Olympics in the Olympic venue areas.
After we had 5.8 million visitors in last winter season, we expect the Olympic effect will give more than 10% rise of visitors from this winter.
Do you expect more tourism from Asia?
MOON-SOON CHOI: Asia is the largest target market of Gangwon Province. With the New Korean-Wave and the growing popularity of K-POP which is expected to continue in the future, as well as the interest in the winter sports experience, and with the expanding marketing of Chinese tourists, we anticipate more tourists from Asia.
When is the next Dream Program and are there going to be more young people over this year?
MOON-SOON CHOI: The 2012 Dream Program will be organized from February 6 to 19 (14 days) 2012 with about 200 participants originating from 46 countries.
While the program has focused on the diffusion of winter sports through hands-on experience in the previous versions, starting from this year it will also operate programs for coaches/athletes to train winter sports professionals and provide specialized lessons from professional education institutes in which children will be grouped by level to learn skiing, snowboarding, figure skating, and short-track speed skating.
We plan to make every effort to increase the participating countries number to over 100 by the PyeongChang 2018 Games, through continuous changes and development of this program.
Part II of a two part series.
Jongdae Yoon and Eungyeong Choi contributed to this article.
Keywords · Gangwon Province · PyeongChang 2018 · Governor Moon Soon Choi · Olympics
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