North Korea recently ordered local authorities throughout the country to renovate tourist sites and aggressively promote travel destinations, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Tuesday that the central government “ordered provinces, directly administered cities and special cities to fix up their leading tourist sites in a modern way and to push forward tourism projects deliberately and quickly.”
According to the source, North Korea ordered the active promotion of tourist destinations in each province and the pursuit of cross-tourism activities in sectors such as excursions to Pyongyang, hot springs, skiing, horseback riding and mountaineering as a pan-national project, emphasizing the renovation of leading tourist destinations in each region.
“The central government said trips to Pyongyang were the most popular tourist product, followed by trips to hot springs in winter, and stressed that [tourism efforts] must attract residents of Chongjin, Hyesan, Samjiyon, Nason, Wonsan and Sinuiju as they would have the most interest in such destinations.”
In particular, North Korea called on local tourism officials to aggressively promote the fact that while visiting Pyongyang or taking tourism excursions to other regions during the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic might have been tough, new roads appeared in Pyongyang, museums and indoor waterparks changed, and tourist destinations in other provinces received modern facelifts during that time.
The government also warned that it would conduct quarterly reviews of which provinces and regions took the lead in developing domestic tourism and which sent the most people on trips to Pyongyang or local tourist sites.
However, in North Hamgyong Province, officials are taking the realistic view that developing domestic tourism will prove challenging given the significant costs people must pay.
“North Hamgyong Province officials believe implementing the order to develop domestic tourism will be difficult, saying that although trips to Pyongyang differ in cost according to the itinerary, they still run between KPW 800,000 and KPW 2 million, so it’s doubtful many people can join.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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