Table of Contents
Yeongwol Searches Are Up 190 Percent
Sometimes, after watching a drama or a film, you just want to walk the actual road that appeared on screen. Travel platform Agoda looked at accommodation search data from January through April this year and found that searches for Yeongwol in Gangwon Province jumped 190 percent compared to the same period last year. Goryeong in North Gyeongsang Province doubled too.
This kind of trip is called “screen tourism” — travel that follows a place you first saw on screen. In the past, it centered on already-famous filming locations like Seoul’s palaces or Jeju Island. Lately, though, a scattered set of smaller cities — Yeongwol, Goryeong, Yesan, Suwon, Jangheung — are all drawing attention at once. Content is drawing a new travel map.
Yeongwol and Goryeong Started With a Movie
Yeongwol and Goryeong were both featured as major filming locations for the movie “The Man Who Lived With the King.” Yeongwol is home to Cheongnyeongpo, where King Danjong, Joseon’s sixth ruler, was exiled, and Jangneung, his royal tomb. Following the film with a visit to the actual historical sites makes the trip linger longer than one built around a film set alone.
Goryeong carries the history of the Daegaya kingdom. It has sites worth visiting outside the film too, like the Daegaya Museum and its ancient tomb clusters. Agoda’s figures don’t prove that a single title is the sole cause of the search increase, but they do show the film’s release and rising interest in the region moved together at the same time.
Yesan, Suwon, and Jangheung Are Each a Different Scene
Yesan in South Chungcheong Province lets you take in old streets, a market, and countryside scenery together. Suwon, with Hwaseong Fortress and the area around Haenggung-dong, has served as the backdrop for numerous period and contemporary dramas, and it’s an easy day trip from Seoul. Jangheung in South Jeolla Province has a completely different atmosphere, with its former-prison film set and the natural landscape of the southern coast.
Jangheung’s accommodation searches rose 18 percent over the same comparison period. Not every region jumped by as much as Yeongwol’s 190 percent. A title’s popularity, the number of lodgings, transportation options, and travel season all play a role. Search growth rates shouldn’t be read as a stand-in for actual visitor numbers or tourism revenue.
K-Content Travel Is Spreading Beyond Seoul
Filming-location travel is welcome news for smaller cities. Foreign and young domestic travelers, who used to concentrate on one or two famous attractions, become more likely to stay overnight and eat in a small city instead. A search for accommodation is at least a sign that someone is considering a longer stay than a day trip — and that spending can spread to local shops and transit too.
But guiding visitors to just one on-screen location doesn’t sustain interest for long. What’s needed is a map connecting filmed scenes to actual spots, foreign-language explanations, public transit information, and nearby restaurants’ operating hours. For a trip to keep going after a title’s popularity fades, it needs to be carried forward by history, nature, and local food — that’s what makes it genuinely “glocal” tourism.
Before You Go Chasing a Filming Location
For places like Yeongwol and Goryeong, where public transit runs infrequently, it’s worth checking train or bus arrival times first. A filming location might be private property or an actual residential village, so stick to areas open to visitors. Please avoid stepping onto roads or farmland just to recreate the exact shot from the film.
If it were me, I’d rewatch the film, pick out the one scene that stuck with me most, and then add a museum or market nearby to the trip. Looking into why a scene was actually filmed in that particular region is a lot more interesting than trying to replicate the shot exactly. Yeongwol’s 190 percent is a number about a shifting destination, and also a sign that travelers are starting to move by following a story.
Source: Agoda press release, May 2026; Travel Daily, May 2026.
