Gumi City goes all out to boost its international profile through global ramen challenge

【Financial News Gumi = Kim Jang-uk】Gumi City is going all out to raise its international profile and attract overseas tourists through a global ramen challenge.
Gumi City selected 13 finalists from among the 1,263 people in 80 countries who took part in the online preliminary round of the ‘2026 Gumi Global Ramen Challenge,’ which was open to people around the world.
The challenge is a project selected through the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s ‘Local Government Cooperation, K-Culture Expansion Support Project’ call for proposals. It is a global participatory program in which people from around the world present their own ramen recipes and compete in cooking at the Gumi Ramyeon Festival.
Jang Jeong-su, head of the Romantic Tourism Division, said, “The participation of 1,263 people from 80 countries around the world is a meaningful achievement that shows the Gumi Ramyeon Festival has what it takes to connect with people worldwide,” and stressed, “We will do our utmost to raise the festival’s international profile through this global ramen challenge and turn that into attracting overseas tourists.”
A total of 1,263 people from 80 countries across Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa and Oceania took part in the 42-day online preliminary round, held from Aug. 25 to Oct. 5, underscoring the worldwide interest in ramen.
Asia had the most participants, with 564 (44.7%), followed by Europe with 229 (18.1%), Latin America with 223 (17.7%), Africa with 134 (10.6%), North America with 107 (8.5%) and Oceania with 6 (0.5%).
The city also expanded the basis for global participation by producing promotional content in 10 languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish, and pursuing video promotions in collaboration with 11 overseas influencers.
The final round will be held at the Gumi Ramyeon Festival venue at 3 p.m. on Nov. 7. Contestants will compete in a live cooking contest, preparing original recipes on site that reflect their countries’ food cultures and distinctive styles. Five top contestants will be selected following expert judging.
In particular, the finalists will stay in Gumi from Nov. 4 to 9 and take part in the final competition and local activities. They are scheduled to visit Nongshim’s Gumi factory on Nov. 5 to see how K-ramen is made, and on Nov. 8 to experience local tourism attractions including Geumosan, Eco Land, Jinpyeong Food Culture Specialty Street and Jisan Saetgang Ecological Park.
The city plans to appoint all participants as global ambassadors and use them as an overseas promotional network in the future, building on the one-off competition to develop sustained global tourism marketing.

[email protected] Kim Jang-uk Reporter