As A Smart Travel Destination, Hwaseong Fort Will Be Equipped With Various Technologies

JAKARTA - The South Korean government announced plans to make Hwaseong Fort in central Suwon, Gyeonggi Province a 'smart' tourism site, incorporating the latest advances in information and communication technology, for the convenience of tourists.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) in a statement, Tuesday, June 15, said the government decided to select the historic building for the development of this year's smart tourism project.

In its inaugural launch last year, the project selected the historical and cultural heritage of Incheon Open Port, as the location for the implementation of smart tourism development.

Hwaseong Fortress, registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a track record of the innovations of King Jeongjo of the Joseon Kingdom from 1392-1910 through the splendor of 18th century science, architecture and art with its four gates and prominent city walls.

To support the smart tourism service project in this historic Benten, the Suwon City Government disbursed a total of USD 6.2 million from the state and local budgets.

Once completed, tourists will be able to enjoy virtual reality and augmented reality content featuring the fort's historic sites, before they are restored or opened to the public.

Not only that, real-time traffic and parking information will also be offered to increase the convenience of visitors who come.

Officials say the sites within the fortress walls, which will be turned into smart tourism sites, will serve as a place where innovative travel startups can expand their future businesses by combining tourism with Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). ).

"The smart tourism city Incheon is scheduled to open in July," said Kim Kwon-ki who is in charge of the smart tourism city project at KTO, as reported by the Korea Times.

"We will give full efforts to improve the competitiveness of regional tourism, by maintaining tourism services in the future," he concluded.

For information, launching World KBS from the Cultural Arts Heritage Affairs Agency, Hwaseong Fort has the most advanced defense facilities outside the framework of the fort that has been established. Hwaseong has a variety of military equipment.

The outer sides of the four gates are protected by semicircular brick walls. Gongshimdon watchtower is made of brick walls in the shape of a tube. Inside there are dozens of holes for firearms, so they can defend and attack at once. The walls at Hwaseong were piled and tortuous, so they were not easily torn down by artillery strikes.

Meaning 'castle for flowers', Hwaseong Fortress accentuates the beauty of curved lines. Both the fort and the surrounding facilities were built by utilizing the natural topography, so it is called an environmentally friendly architectural building.