UN chief's visit causes surge in visitors to Hahoe folk village

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to the Hahoe folk village has caused a surge in visitors to Hahoe folk village, the local tourism office said Sunday.

According to the Hahoe tourism office, the number of people who visited the well-preserved heritage site jumped three-fold to 92,002 from May 30 through June 29 compared to 32,558 in the same one-month period in 2015.

Ban toured the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910) village in Andong 268 kilometers southeast of Seoul on May 29. Hahoe is a unique lived-in village that has both tiled roofed residences of the old "yangban" ruling class and thatched roof dwellings of commoners, and has been a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage site since 2010.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (center) at the Hahoe folk village on Mat 29, 2016. (Yonhap)

"The number is particularly high since June is generally an off-season for visitors," the management office said.

It said that while the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome scare may have contributed to very lower numbers for 2015, the total is significantly higher than 73,130 people who toured the folk village during the same late May to late June period in 2013, when there was no MERS scare.

"The annual number of visitors has generally stayed the same at around 1 million, with very little fluctuations for the most part," said a local source.

He pointed out that since there were no other factors, the spike in visitors can be attributed to Ban's visit, which generated positive publicity for the village.

Ban's trip to the village was part of a six-day visit to his native South Korea where he attended a gathering of the Rotary International Convention and a U.N. conference of civic organizations. (Yonhap)