LG Uplus said on Monday it signed a business agreement with the Gwangju Tourism Organization to build an integrated tourism data platform for Gwangju and South Jeolla, and will cooperate on data-based tourism policy and revitalising local commercial districts.

The agreement aims to link Gwangju and South Jeolla into a single tourism zone. The two sides will analyse tourists’ travel routes and consumption patterns as data and use it for tourism policy and regional marketing. They plan to expand the scope of cooperation in stages through 2028.

LG Uplus and the Gwangju Tourism Organization will use telecommunications data to analyse movement flows, stay patterns and consumption characteristics of tourists travelling between Gwangju and South Jeolla. They expect the visualised data will show which areas in South Jeolla tourists who stayed overnight in Gwangju travel to, as well as preferred destinations by age group and key spending areas.

The analysis will also be used to design a super-regional tourism course linking downtown Gwangju tourism content with South Jeolla’s nature and marine tourism resources.

The two sides will also pursue measures to put the analysed data to practical use in tourism policy and local economic revitalisation. They will first build tourism data intelligence that analyses tourism trends by period and region and use it as basic material for policymaking.

They will also upgrade digital marketing, including content recommendations tailored to tourist characteristics and festival promotion. To revitalise local commercial districts, they will create an environment for data-based marketing support that small business owners can use. They will also consider ways to link analysis of visitor inflow routes and stay patterns during festivals and major events so local merchants can use it for targeted marketing.

Jang Jun-young (장준영), head of the marketing group at LG Uplus, said, "LG Uplus has continued to play a role in connecting regions and people by using telecommunications data." He added, "Through this cooperation, we will enhance the competitiveness of the Gwangju and South Jeolla tourism industry and build a win-win model that grows together with local communities."