The Tourism Lessons In Pedestrianizing Roads
Road use is often debated by various stakeholders on who should be served by those infrastructure.
Yet, it is often the pedestrians who lose out to the vehicles.
But one major destination in Asia, South Korea specifically has been showing that if properly thought of, turning roads into exclusive use of pedestrians can have enormous and compounding impacts to the society and the economy.
Myeongdong is a relatively large area in Seoul comprising of several streets with hundreds of business establishments.
By closing off several roads, the area effectively forced the people to walk along the streets. The immediate results are longer contact time between the people and the businesses in the area.
Myeongdong has also turned into a major tourist area which makes it a must-visit attraction for almost all the tourists to Seoul. Combined with the locals, the number of people going around the safe streets of Myeongdong number to about one million per day.
What part of your area do you think that can be converted like the streets of Myeongdong?
Below is a video showing the actual situation in Myeongdong as one walks its street during Autumn.
