Daejeon has shed its old image as a boring city and emerged as a bread tourism destination, with Sungsimdang at the center of that shift. The city drew 90.94 million visitors last year, and 48.1 percent of visits were driven by food tourism. Sungsimdang, founded in 1956, posted 262.9 billion won in sales and 64.3 billion won in operating profit last year. A study from Daejeon University found that the word boring and the bakery together helped reshape the city’s identity.
Shoppers wait in line outside the main Sungsimdang store in Jung District, Daejeon, Aug. 4. Yonhap
In 2019, Daejeon Metropolitan City made an unusual pitch to tourists, asking them to post their own flowchart for visits to what it jokingly called “Boring Daejeon.”
It worked like a decision tree for visitors to Daejeon. Participants could answer “yes” or “no” to questions about the city and where to go, but no matter the path, it always ended the same way: “Stop by Sungsimdang — a historic bakery nestled in the heart of Daejeon.”
The humorous chart reflected how Daejeon is widely seen even by its own residents as a dull and uninteresting city, a place without the standout attractions that drew people to other comparably-sized cities.
