Travel authorities to tackle overcharging at rural festivals

In this photo taken on Oct. 27, 2022, visitors try seafood green onion pancake and fish cakes in a sardine broth at a regional food festival held in Seoul's Mapo District. Newsis

By Lee Hae-rin

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Thursday, announced a plan to tackle overcharging at regional festivals across the country by enforcing price control measures and campaigning amid growing criticism of the issue.

The culture ministry, along with the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), will monitor festival food prices in advance and work with local governments, festival organizers and local residents to control the prices of food sold in 86 cultural tourism festivals nationwide which the ministry selects and promotes as regional special tourism assets.

The ministry will work with regional tourism organizations and festival organizing committees to launch the Good Price campaign next Friday.

From July, prices and photos of food items sold in regional festivals will be available online on the KTO's Visit Korea website while at the same time enhancing on-site monitoring of food prices.

Festivals that proactively come up with food price control measures will be awarded promotional opportunities, the ministry said, as it plans to jointly create content with influencers around festivals with better pricing.

The ministry will also began a five-part advisory conference with experts, Wednesday, which runs until Monday to work with local governments, related agencies and festival organizing committees on tackling the issue of overcharging.

The measures being implemented by various travel authorities came after a recent online backlash where people claimed to have witnessed and experienced excessively high food prices at regional festivals.

In March, an online post by a visitor to Jinhae Gunhangje Cherry Blossom Festival in the nation's southern seaside city of Changwon went viral. The visitor claimed to have spent 50,000 won ($38) for a pork barbeque dish and 10,000 won for a seafood green onion pancake. “I expected the food to be a bit overpriced, but this is too much,” the post read.

A Japanese YouTuber who visited Hampyeong Butterfly Festival in South Jeolla Province in April complained about fish cakes in a sardine broth that was sold there for 10,000 won.

Members of “2 Days and 1 Night,” a hit reality-variety show where stars travel to different local townships, are charged 70,000 for a bag of local snacks weighing 1.5 kilograms by a vendor in Yeongyang County, North Gyeongsang Province, in this episode aired on June 4. Captured from YouTube

A weekly entertainment show that airs on local broadcaster KBS, raised further attention. In an episode aired on June 4, a group of celebrities visited a festival in Yeongyang County, North Gyeongsang Province and tried to buy a bag of local traditional snacks, for which the vendor charged 70,000 won for 1.5 kilograms.

The vendor posted a letter of apology on the county's website. “I will not make excuses. I overcharged the snacks because it's been so hard to make ends meet during the COVID-19 pandemic … My sincere apology to all vendors and staff of the '2 Days and 1 Night program,'” the letter read.