Seoul Hanok Week draws 85,000, up 15% from last year
Visitors experience visit a "hanok," or traditional Korean home, at Bukchon Culture Center in Seoul, Oct. 2. Yonhap
This year’s Seoul Hanok Week drew approximately 85,000 visitors — a 15 percent increase from 2025 — highlighting the growing appeal of traditional Korean houses as everyday cultural spaces, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Thursday.
Turnout for the annual festival has grown steadily, from about 35,000 in 2024 to 74,000 last year.
The fourth edition of the festival ran for 10 days, from Oct. 2 to 11, in Bukchon, Seochon and other hanok neighborhoods across the capital. This year's theme was hanok in daily life. Some 180 participants, including the Swiss Embassy in Korea, local resident guides and artists, ran a record 82 programs, up 16 from last year.
This year the city put more weight on hands-on programs than on sightseeing. A new exhibition drew about 17,000 visitors to six public hanok in Bukchon and Seochon that had been furnished with modern furniture and household items.
About 900 people applied for guided tours of hanok that are normally closed to the public, or roughly four applicants per spot. The tours marked the 10th anniversary of the city’s certification program for outstanding hanok. Traditional tea and liquor sessions drew 480 reservations, an average of 18 applicants per spot, and nine performances drew some 1,400 people.
The city’s hanok policy changed course in 2008, when Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced a plan to extend preservation and support from Bukchon to the whole city. In 2023, the city widened the policy to cover modern uses of hanok and their promotion overseas.
The festival came shortly after Time Out in September named Jongno 3-ga the world’s coolest neighborhood for 2026. The area includes the old hanok alleys of Ikseon-dong.
Participants asked for more sessions and longer hours, and the city plans to provide them. It also plans to open more public hanok hubs that reflect the character of each area.
“We will expand public hanok hubs across Seoul so that more citizens can enjoy hanok in their daily lives and people around the world can experience Seoul more deeply,” said the head of the city’s Housing Office.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.