Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) anticipates an average of 130,000 people to visit the airport each day during the upcoming major harvest festival, ‘Chuseok’, reaching a total of 896,000 during the holiday period, an increase of 11% year-on-year.

 

This figure is almost 200,000 higher than it was during last year’s Chuseok holiday and the highest on record for any Chuseok holiday period. In particular, the number of departing passengers is expected to exceed 87,000 on the 6th when the holiday starts, with the daily number of passengers expected to reach 150,000.

 

Chuseok, also known as ‘Hangawi’ is a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on or around the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Like many other harvest festivals, it is held around the Autumn Equinox, and sees Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food.

 

IIAC has recommended the use of public transport rather than cars during the Chuseok holiday period.

 

BID NEWS

As highlighted, back in July, there is still no updated information on Incheon International Airport’s duty free bid schedule, ahead of next year’s February-end contract expiry dates.

 

As of July 6, TRBusiness confirmed that the three incumbents (Lotte, Shilla and KTO) had no news on when a bid  process may begin for the $1.8bn  operation.

 

AIRPORT CULTURAL PROGRAMME

During the extremely busy period at the airport IIAC will host various cultural events including a traditional culture experience programme on the 8th as a way of wishing a plentiful holiday to airport visitors.

 

Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) and Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation have planned ‘a Big Hangawi (another word for Chuseok) Event’ at Incheon Airport’s attractions for Korea’s traditional culture, namely the Korea Culture Avenue on the fourth floor and the Korean Traditional Cultural Experience Center in the Duty Free Area on the third floor of the passenger terminal.

 

Experiences such as songpyeon-making will be offered at the Cultural Experience Center, as well as traditional art performances such as Korean folk music concerts and dance performances.

 

The Culture Avenue will showcase a traditional Korean tea ceremony as well as folk games and Korean chamber music, offering airport visitors an opportunity to experience Korea’s traditional culture.

 

‘YEAR-ROUND PERFORMANCES’

In addition, the year-round cultural performances will continue during the Chuseok holidays. The self-produced performance entitled ‘Afternoon Dejavu’ will be shown in the Millennium Hall three times a day and a small piano quintet concert will be held in the Duty Free Area on the third floor five times a day.

 

On Chuseok day, a free event will be held where the audience will get photos taken on the spot, which will then be printed on cushions.

 

Incheon Airport has held events for to celebrate seasonal customs such as Chuseok and Seollal (Lunar New Year) since 2008 in order to promote Korea’s traditional culture and seasonal customs to foreigners and airport visitors.

 

The traditional culture experience event that was held during the Seollal holidays in February this year received much attention with more than 12,000 passengers watching or participating in the event themselves.