▲ Coffee Hole / CEO Chulhwan Oh

It has become common that people put up photos taken by popular places on their social media accounts. From restaurants to tourist attractions, people try to get the best spot for the best shot. In South Korea, cafes and restaurants among them are the trendiest at the moment. Business owners are competitively investing in ambience and uniqueness of the place in order to lure more visitors who will be marketing their places for their own satisfaction. 

Coffee Hole seizes an opportunity through ‘stairway to heaven’
Coffee Hole in Songpo-dong, Sacheon City, South Gyeongsang Province, is one of these hottest cafes on social media at the moment. Looking out the sea from the café, visitors sit back and appreciating the calm see and the surrounding landscape over a cup of coffee with a piece of cake or bread. What makes this café trendiest, however, is the stairway sculpture called ‘stairway to heaven’, the reason people visit there to take the best shot. Thanks to this stairway, Coffee Hole has grown the number of branches significantly recently and the number has now reached to 40 nationwide.  

Expect to line up for an hour in peak season
The surreal images of selfies taken on the top of the ‘stairway to heaven’ have attracted a great number of social-holics. They are heading to Coffee Hole in Songpo-dong to have the same shot to boast their poses. Waiting for an hour to get a seat in peak season does not seem to bother them at all. The manager of the branch estimated that around 200,000 people have visited the café so far. In return, CEO Oh recently gave out free vacation home vouchers and smart phone gift vouchers to visitors. 

Sacheon and Admiral Sunshin Lee
Sacheon is a place where Admiral Sunshin Lee made turtle ships. With rich historic assets and beautiful sceneries, the city is adding aerospace industry as a new growth engine of the region alongside using the most of the gondola lift over the sea to promote regional tourism. In accordance with this plan, CEO Oh is planning to add a restaurant next to the cafe as well as a vacation home. It is his goal to turn the place as a theme park. Oh also has this grand plan to build a huge statue of Admiral Sunshin Lee like Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro or the Statute of Liberty in New York. Oh is a member of the Sacheon Urban Regeneration Committee and the Sacheon Budget Committee. 

Aquarium
Sacheon City is building an aquarium. This one storey above and two storey underground building will contain 4,000 tons of water and 400 species of mammals, fishes and reptiles. It is set to open April 2021 and is expected to play a landmark of the city. 

“A lot of people are hard hit by COVID 19 and they are struggling hard. I hope that the aquarium on Choyang Island and the large scale tourist landmark which will be erected next to it will be symbols of healing and hope for all visitors. And I also hope these two landmarks will turn the city as the tourist hub of South Shore” says Chulhwan Oh, CEO of Coffee Hole.