Inje Autumn Flower Festival Draws 340,000 Visitors... Agricultural and Specialty Product Sales Reach 1.135 Billion Won

Inje County Tops 300,000 Visitors for Second Consecutive Year
Wellbeing Market Sales Rise 89% from Last Year

The 2026 Inje Autumn Flower Festival closed on October 18 after drawing more than 340,000 visitors. Sales of local agricultural and specialty products at the festival nearly doubled from last year.

2026 Inje Autumn Flower Festival. Courtesy of Inje County.

Inje County, Gangwon Province, said a total of 346,759 people visited the festival, held from September 24 to October 18 at the Yongdae Tourist Site in Buk-myeon. For the second consecutive year, attendance exceeded 300,000.

This year, tourists flocked to the festival during the Chuseok, National Foundation Day and Hangul Day holiday periods. A total of 223,158 people visited during those three periods alone: 82,890 during the Chuseok holiday, 71,642 during the National Foundation Day holiday and 68,626 during the Hangul Day holiday. That accounted for about 64.4% of all visitors.

Held under the theme “Let's Walk Among Flowers in Inje,” the festival welcomed tourists with flower gardens featuring chrysanthemums, Gujeolcho and verbena, alongside autumn scenery in Naeseorak. The “Park Inhwan Romantic Garden,” created to mark the 100th anniversary of poet Park Inhwan's birth, also offered a space to enjoy flowers and literature together.

Tourist visits boosted local agricultural and specialty product sales. Cumulative sales of agricultural and specialty products, chrysanthemums and other goods at the festival's Wellbeing Market totaled about 1.135 billion won. That was an increase of 535 million won, or about 89%, from approximately 600 million won last year.

During peak traffic hours, the county used drones to monitor traffic in real time on major access roads and around parking lots, and used the information to manage traffic on-site.

The festival, originally scheduled to run through October 11, was extended by a week as the flowers reached their peak and visitors continued to arrive. During the extension, operations centered on the flower gardens, agricultural and specialty product market, and forest cafe.

“We will develop distinctive festival content that makes use of Inje's natural environment,” said Kim Jeongsu, head of the Festival Team at the Inje County Cultural Foundation. “We will strengthen the festival's competitiveness so that attracting tourists leads to a real increase in income for local farmers and businesses.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.