Crowds of Young Koreans and Foreign Visitors Fill Seosunra-gil, Jongno 3-ga and Ikseon-dong
Seosunra-gil stretches along the western wall of Jongmyo Shrine in Seoul's Jongno District. As dusk settled on an autumn evening, more young people arrived to enjoy the night. The alley, a mix of old houses, craft workshops, and cafes and restaurants converted from traditional hanok homes, soon filled with people. Laughter drifted from the outdoor tables, and foreign tourists were busy taking photographs. The road once patrolled nightly by Joseon Dynasty watchmen guarding against thieves and fires has been transformed into a place pulsing with new energy. At 6:30 p.m. on the 6th, Lee Ji-hyun, Seoul's special adviser for the night economy, pointed to the scene from a cafe on Seosunra-gil.
"Seoul is rising to become one of the world's top three cities, and I believe nighttime culture will play as big a role going forward as K-pop has," Lee said. "Seoul's night itself can become a brand that draws people from around the world."
The meeting with Lee was arranged to hear firsthand about the night economy policy that the Seoul Metropolitan Government began pushing in earnest last month. The walking interview started on Seosunra-gil and continued to the open-air night market at Jongno 3-ga and the alleys of Ikseon-dong, lasting more than two hours. The first topic Lee raised was yajang, the open-air night market that has become a new form of nightlife.
"For young people, yajang is a culture," Lee said. "It's different from simply going out for a drink. They come to enjoy the atmosphere and the space itself. Even if it's a little uncomfortable and they have to wait, they enjoy that process too."
Few empty seats remained at the outdoor cafe tables on Seosunra-gil, and people strolled slowly through the alley to enjoy the autumn night. Foreign tourists photographing themselves under hanok eaves mingled easily with young Koreans waiting their turn outside shops. The street was a place of consumption and, at the same time, a cultural space for experiencing the atmosphere of the city.
"Seoul has put a lot of effort into making itself an attractive city during the day, but it hasn't looked closely enough at how residents spend their time after evening falls," Lee said. "Now it's time to widen the range of hours through which we look at the city."
Seoul Launches Night Economy Drive, Targeting Leisure, Tourism and Local Business
Behind the city government's decision to treat the night as a new policy area are three intertwined tasks: expanding residents' leisure activities, accommodating a rise in foreign tourists, and reviving sluggish neighborhood commercial districts. The idea is to generate new spending during hours that have not been fully used, broadening the scope of the urban economy. Opening cultural facilities used only during the day into the evening, and linking tourist attractions to nearby commercial areas, can generate more economic activity, the city says.
"Seoul residents spend an average of about 310.8 billion won a day between 5 p.m. and 6 a.m. the next morning," Lee said. "Raising nighttime spending by just 4% to 5% from current levels could create roughly 5 trillion won a year in new added value."
Leaving Seosunra-gil and walking toward Jongno 3-ga Station, a completely different scene unfolded. Dozens of outdoor tables lined the roadside, packed with hundreds of people deep in conversation. Plates of food and glasses of liquor covered every table, and servers moved briskly through the narrow aisles. It looked less like a street than a vast outdoor festival — the kind of place a British travel magazine might name one of the world's coolest neighborhoods.
At tables where several languages mixed, many foreign tourists were enjoying Korean yajang culture. The Jongno 3-ga area, once seen as a drinking quarter for middle-aged and older Koreans, has been transformed into a global destination. In the first half of this year, 8.23 million foreign tourists visited Seoul, up 21.3% from a year earlier. Over the same period, card spending by foreign visitors rose 56.8% to about 5.6 trillion won. Lee said it is important to encourage foreign tourists to watch an evening performance and take in the night views, then visit restaurants and shops in the alleys, rather than touring landmarks and returning to their lodgings.
New York and Amsterdam have a "night mayor" to coordinate the city's night economy, and London has a "night czar" responsible for nighttime policy. Since last month, Lee has held a similar role in Seoul. Lee served two terms on the Seoul Metropolitan Council from 2006 to 2014 and later worked as a visiting research fellow at the Yeouido Institute and as vice director of the Barun Policy Institute. Since 2022, Lee has served as a policy planning adviser, senior secretary for vision and strategy, and special adviser for planning at the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
"Working in city branding and content, I spent a long time thinking about how a city could become more interesting," Lee said. "Seoul already has a variety of spaces and cultural resources, so adding the dimension of night will greatly widen the range of what residents can experience in the city."
Small Businesses See Nighttime Sales Keep Sliding, Look to Night Spending for Relief
The glittering night scene at Jongno 3-ga, however, does not represent every neighborhood commercial district in Seoul. Across the city, nighttime commerce is in fact losing vitality. According to city government data, the share of nighttime sales in small business revenue fell 3.2 percentage points, from 40% in 2019 to 36.8% in 2025.
"Even downtown, quite a few shops take their last order around 8 p.m.," Lee said. "It's a combination of labor costs, rent burdens and weak spending. One of the important reasons for pursuing a night economy is precisely the difficulties facing small business owners."
Past the Jongno 3-ga night market, in the alleys of Ikseon-dong, the mood of the night shifted again. Warm light spilled from restaurants and cafes converted from hanok homes, as well as from accessory shops and clothing stores. Foreign tourists peered into display windows and browsed the merchandise. The narrow alleys were crowded enough that shoulders brushed. Lee cited safety — not glittering facilities or tourism content — as Seoul's biggest nighttime competitive advantage.
"When you ask foreigners why they like Seoul, the first thing they say is that it's safe," Lee said. "Being able to walk around freely even late at night is an enormous asset. If you combine a safe urban environment with diverse cultural content and convenient transportation, Seoul's nighttime competitiveness can only rise."
The way foreign tourists travel has also been changing. Instead of visiting famous attractions one after another, more are seeking out restaurants, cafes and alleys they discovered through social media. That means the atmosphere of the alleys and night streets that residents visit as a matter of routine can be a special experience for visitors. With that in mind, the city government is developing Gwanghwamun, Namsan, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) and the Han River as major nighttime tourism hubs while working to connect them with surrounding commercial districts. "In the end, what we're trying to create is not a single destination but a course for spending a night in Seoul," Lee said. "We need to create a flow where people see an exhibition or a performance, enjoy the night views, eat and shop in the alleys, and get back to their lodgings safely."
Six 'Moonlight Night Markets' Chosen First, With Night Weddings Planned at Museums
The project that gives shape to this vision is the "Moonlight Yajang," or moonlight night market. The aim is to create distinctive nighttime destinations in each of Seoul's 25 autonomous districts, not just in the Jongno 3-ga commercial area. Six sites have been selected first this year, including Serosu-gil in Gangnam and the Sadang Orak Moonlight Yajang in Gwanak, with up to 2 billion won in support for each commercial district. Lee stressed, however, that the results of the night economy should not be judged by sales growth alone. "If it's simply a matter of shifting spending that used to happen at 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., it's hard to call that an effect of the night economy," Lee said. "The real added value is new activity and spending that wasn't happening before."
To that end, the city government is analyzing card payment data on a 50-meter grid and combining it with telecom-based data on daytime and resident populations to examine changes in commercial districts. The plan is to analyze comprehensively whether total daily sales and time spent in an area have increased, in addition to nighttime sales, and what effect there has been on nearby commercial districts, then use the findings in future policy.
The night economy is not limited to eating and drinking. The city is also working to broaden residents' choices for culture and leisure. One notable change is nighttime opening of public cultural facilities. Eight major city-run cultural institutions, including the Seoul Museum of History, the Seoul Museum of Art and the Seoul Museum of Craft Art, have extended operating hours that previously centered on 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and begun running nighttime programs. The city plans to promote night weddings at museums and art galleries, and to install lighting at park golf courses popular with older adults so they can be used into the night. "Even in the same space, creating a different use at a different time can give rise to a new ecosystem," Lee said. "It's about using the city's spaces differently depending on the hour."
There are plenty of barriers to clear, Lee said, pointing first to rules on rooftop business operations.
"Rooftop businesses face constraints, such as exceeding floor area ratios because of fixed awnings," Lee said. "That's a task we have to resolve in consultation with the central government. Rules that can't keep up with changes on the ground need to be overhauled to fit reality."
Noise and Trash Are the 'Costs of Night'; Easing Rooftop Rules Also Needed
The city government plans to draw up regulatory improvements through a night economy committee and related ordinances. Expanding transportation infrastructure is another task. If there is not enough transportation to get home or back to a hotel late at night, expanding nighttime activity has limits. To address that, the city plans to run 10 late-night "Firefly Buses" in November connecting major tourism hubs including Hongik University Station, Myeong-dong and Gwanghwamun. As nighttime activity grows, so can social costs such as noise, trash and obstructed sidewalks. "For the Moonlight Yajang, we form local cooperation councils to discuss business hours, noise, cleanliness and pedestrian issues," Lee said. "We plan to increase the rapid-response cleaning unit from 100 to 150 people and add 50 staff dedicated to the night markets."
What Lee stressed repeatedly while walking the alleys was being on the ground. Effective policy requires seeing for oneself why residents come to a place, what they enjoy there and what inconveniences they face. Lee also plans to develop content to keep promoting the night economy.
"We plan to create content called 'Seoul Tonight,'" Lee said. "It goes beyond one-off festivals to show what's available in the evening on ordinary days. If those experiences accumulate, 'Seoul's night' itself can become a brand."
As the walking interview ended around 9 p.m., Jongno's night was even livelier. Rising foreign tourist numbers, the spread of Korean culture and a safe urban environment are solid assets for Seoul's night economy. The Seoul night Lee envisions is a city that offers enjoyment to residents, new experiences to tourists and opportunity to small business owners.
"Night can be another beginning that gives dopamine to our lives," Lee said. "I hope residents can end their evening happily and gain the energy to live tomorrow again."
