An Empty Island Expo—Are Taxi Drivers to Blame?... Yeosu City Sparks Outrage with a “Muzzle-the-Drivers” Notice

[Financial News] The 2026 Yeosu World Island Expo, which received a budget of more than 70 billion won, is facing a public backlash over poor content and rip-off prices. The controversy has intensified after Yeosu City identified local taxi drivers as the source of negative rumors about the expo. The city is drawing strong criticism for appearing to blame the struggling event on innocent taxi workers and attempting to muzzle them.
According to Yeosu City and the local taxi industry on the 21st, the city recently sent an official notice, bearing the mayor’s seal, to taxi companies in the area. Titled “Request for Education (Guidance), Including a Ban on Taxi Drivers Spreading Rumors Related to the 2026 Yeosu World Island Expo,” the notice called for measures to prevent the spread of rumors.
The city wrote in the notice, “There is a prevailing view that drivers are spreading rumors, including claims that preparations for the Island Expo are inadequate,” adding, “We believe dissatisfaction over the drivers’ declining earnings may have manifested itself in the spreading of rumors.”
The city even analyzed and compared individual taxi drivers’ earnings over nine-day periods in early September last year and this year. It made the speculative claim, “Although there was no decline in earnings, drivers may have become dissatisfied because their income did not increase noticeably compared with their expectations for a boom.” The city then asked the companies to educate their drivers, saying, “If the expo succeeds, earnings will increase, so please prohibit the spread of rumors and have the drivers promote the purpose of the event.”
The taxi industry strongly objected, saying Yeosu City had baselessly portrayed drivers as spreaders of malicious rumors. An official from a local taxi company vented his anger, saying, “Even if they could not help an international event held in their hometown, would they make up things that never happened and badmouth it to tourists? It is appalling that the city views drivers as a group that harbors resentment because they did not make much money and spreads malicious rumors.”
A Yeosu official explained, “We asked for restraint because speculative, unverified claims could be exaggerated.” However, criticism has not subsided after it emerged that the city had created and sent out an official notice based solely on conjecture, without clear evidence.

The Yeosu Island Expo is currently being ridiculed on social media as a “waste of tax money” because of a crude “traditional boat song” performance in which people pretend to row from the bed of a truck and a poorly prepared 14,900-won set meal featuring soy sauce-marinated crab. The expo initially set a target of attracting 3 million visitors, but only about 180,000 people had attended during the first two weeks after its opening, marking a disappointing performance.
Rather than accepting the stinging criticism and improving its facilities and content, Yeosu City has threatened that it “will not hesitate to take legal action” against false or defamatory online content. As a result, residents are looking on even more coldly.
[email protected] Park Ji-hyun Reporter