By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
The Gaeseong tourism program has been heading along the right path since its launch last month, as a growing number of people are braving the cold winter weather to visit the North Korean border town, according to Hyundai Asan Friday.
Hyundai Asan, the South Korean operator of various inter-Korean economic projects such as the Mount Geumgang tourism program, said that a total of 7,470 people have crossed the heavily fortified border to visit the ancient capital city as of Dec. 31.
``We expect that the tally of visitors will top 9,000 by this weekend, which marks exactly one month since the start of Gaeseong tourism business,’’ said a company spokesman.
Hyundai Asan officially launched the one-day, overland tour program to Gaeseong, the capital of the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) and now the site of a large-scale inter-Korean industrial complex, on Dec. 5.
Given that the tour program operates six days a week ― except Mondays ― and the number of visitors is limited to 300-350 a day, in the first month the tickets were sold out almost everyday, according to the spokesman.
``In January, the average reservation rate exceeded 90 percent,’’ he added. ``We are now considering building more facilities for visitors, such as restaurants, and expanding the maximum number of visitors to 500 a day by diversifying tour courses.’’
Currently, there is only one tour route that includes a visit to Bagyeon Pokpo, a 37-meter-high scenic waterfall often dubbed one of the ``Songdo-samjeol,’’ or the three things (figures) famous for fidelity in Goryeo, along with Hwang Jin-i and Seo Gyeong-deok.
Another one of the charms of the tour program is that visitors can get a glimpse into the ordinary lives of North Koreans in the city since all the tour sites in the afternoon are situated in the downtown area.
Hyundai Asan CEO Yoon Man-joon said last month that his company would develop more tour routes to introduce other attractions such as the royal tombs and temples of the Goryeo Dynasty, of which Gaeseong was the capital for about 500 years.
Founded in February 1992 as an affiliate of Hyundai Group, Hyundai Asan has been engaged in various cross-border economic projects with North Korea such as the Mount Geumgang tourism project and construction of Gaeseong Industrial Complex.
Hyundai Asan ran into red figures for a long time. But its large-scale investment in the poverty-stricken Stalinist state has been paying off recently. It now plans to launch a new tour business to Mount Baekdu on the border between China and North Korea in May.