As travelers increasingly seek authentic cultural experiences over cookie-cutter tourism, Korean startup Haenyeo Kitchen Group is pioneering an entirely new category: immersive dining that brings UNESCO-recognized traditions to life through theatrical storytelling and seasonal cuisine.

Jeju Island welcomes over 12 million visitors each year, yet few leave with a genuine understanding of the island’s cultural soul. At the heart of that identity are the haenyeo—female free-divers who’ve harvested the ocean’s bounty for centuries using nothing but their breath and determination. Despite UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status, this remarkable tradition too often gets reduced to tourist snapshots and superficial exhibits. Meanwhile, the restaurant industry struggles to move beyond standard offerings toward experiences that authentically weave together place, story, and plate.

Haenyeo Kitchen Group saw an opportunity in this disconnect. What if haenyeo culture could be experienced rather than just observed? What if a meal could transport diners into the depths of Jeju’s waters and the hearts of its communities?

The answer lies in their signature immersive dining format, where performance and cuisine become inseparable. Guests don’t just watch a show before dinner—they become part of an unfolding narrative where every course advances the story, and every theatrical element enhances the flavors. It’s dinner theater reimagined for the 21st century, with serious culinary credentials and deep cultural roots.

The concept is already proving itself. Two Jeju locations maintain a staggering 97% reservation rate with 4.8-star customer satisfaction. Government recognition has followed: the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism selected them for the 2024 Korean Tourism Star Award, while the Korea Tourism Organization and Jeju Province honored their social impact. Through pop-ups with brands like Musinsa and events at Paris’s Korean Cultural Center, they’ve reached 2.7 million people—impressive for a company that started with a single dining room.

This October marks a pivotal moment: Haenyeo Kitchen Group opens at Singapore’s The Arts House, bringing their Jeju-proven model to one of Asia’s most sophisticated food markets. It’s a bold test of whether Korean regional culture can captivate global audiences when delivered with theatrical flair and culinary excellence.

Behind this expansion is support from the 2025 Tourism Global Challenge, a program run by CNTTech in partnership with Korea’s tourism authorities. The funding has enabled crucial IP protection, content development, and partnership building—infrastructure that transforms a creative concept into a scalable cultural enterprise.

We spoke with the team about turning tradition into innovation, why Singapore matters, and how they’re building something that transcends the restaurant business.

What’s the core problem you’re solving?

Millions visit Jeju every year, but they leave with little more than photos and souvenirs. The real story—the haenyeo culture that earned UNESCO recognition—remains largely inaccessible. Most tourism stops at surface-level experiences: quick demonstrations, static exhibits, maybe a seafood lunch. The haenyeo tradition deserves better than that kind of casual consumption.

The restaurant scene faces similar limitations. Places serve good food but rarely connect it meaningfully to the culture it comes from. There’s a story gap—between what travelers want to understand and what’s actually being offered.

Modern travelers, especially, want depth. They’re not satisfied with just trying local dishes; they want to understand the hands that harvested the ingredients, the traditions that shaped the recipes, the communities that kept these practices alive. That’s the gap we’re filling: creating pathways into haenyeo culture that feel genuine and immersive, not packaged or performative.

Beyond serving tourists, we’re building sustainable ways to honor and preserve this heritage. We want to take these stories global—to show international audiences why haenyeo culture matters and let them feel that significance firsthand.

How does your experience actually work?

We don’t do dinner and a show. We do dinner as the show—they’re completely integrated. The performance doesn’t happen before your meal or during intermission. It’s woven into every moment, every course. You’re not watching haenyeo stories unfold; you’re inside them.

The food itself tells the story. Each dish uses Jeju’s seasonal ingredients in ways that connect to the narrative. The staging—lighting, sound, digital media art—creates total immersion. Nothing feels separate or tacked on. It’s one continuous experience where you taste the ocean, hear the waves, and understand the lives built around them.

This format scales, too. We can do intimate 14-person private dining or full theatrical productions for hundreds. We’ve done pop-ups and festivals. The core concept adapts without losing its soul.

What guests take away isn’t just a nice meal—it’s sensory understanding of haenyeo culture that stays with them. That’s how we deliver authentic experiences tourists are looking for while creating something that resonates universally.

What sets you apart from competitors?

Authenticity. We work directly with haenyeo communities, building content from their actual stories and voices. That creates trust you can’t fake.

Most places that combine food and entertainment keep them in separate lanes—maybe a performance before dinner. We’ve created something truly unified, where the theatrical and culinary elements are inseparable. That integration is our defining characteristic and a complete intellectual property in itself.

Technically, we’re pushing boundaries too. Stage production, media art, immersive sound design—we use these tools to create experiences people get lost in. The content is modular, meaning we can adapt it from our home base in Jeju to international pop-ups or major metropolitan venues without losing what makes it special.

The food isn’t just accompaniment; it’s narrative. Every dish is designed as part of the story, giving guests something genuinely new: meals that carry meaning beyond flavor.

Our results back this up. High reservation rates, strong satisfaction scores—there’s clearly demand for this kind of cultural-culinary fusion. But we see these numbers as proof of potential, not just past success. They show us we can keep expanding this to broader audiences worldwide.

Walk us through what you’re currently offering.

Our core service is immersive dining where performance and food are one experience. We operate two Jeju locations with distinct personalities.

Jongdal seats about 40 people and pairs buffet-style dining with performance. Bukchon is our premium location—just 14 seats offering multi-course meals in an intimate setting with theatrical elements woven throughout.

Both locations average 97% reservation rates with 4.8-star satisfaction scores. Beyond our restaurants, we’ve done Musinsa fashion pop-ups, events at the Korean Cultural Center in Paris, and various government and corporate collaborations. Total exposure across all these efforts: around 2.7 million people.

Those numbers prove we’re not just running restaurants—we’re creating a new category of cultural content that genuinely resonates in the market.

Right now we’re preparing our Singapore launch at The Arts House, a national cultural institution. This is our first extended international operation, taking a model we’ve validated in Jeju and bringing it to a global stage. We’re evolving from food service into a platform that delivers cultural experiences—using Jeju and haenyeo stories as the medium.

Who are you building this for?

We’re targeting two distinct but complementary markets.

Domestically, Jeju gets over 12 million visitors annually. We’re after the ones who want more than sightseeing—travelers seeking genuine cultural depth. Family groups and premium dining enthusiasts represent our steadiest growth segments.

Internationally, we’re focused on cities like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Paris—places where food culture is sophisticated and audiences expect innovation. Customers in these markets will pay premium prices for original experiences that authentically blend cuisine with cultural storytelling.

Global media is helping us, too. As OTT platforms and international press feature Jeju and haenyeo culture, overseas interest is accelerating. We’re actively building on that momentum.

Our core targets: high-income locals, arts and culture enthusiasts, corporate clients. For these audiences, premium dining built around Jeju’s stories offers something they can’t get elsewhere. Through them, we’re establishing haenyeo and Jeju culture as sustainable global brands, not just regional curiosities.

How does the business model work?

Two main revenue streams.

First, our directly operated dining venues. Jongdal and Bukchon generate steady ticket sales and food revenue, supported by those strong reservation and satisfaction rates.

Second, content licensing for international expansion. We’ve built unique IP combining performance and dining. We can license this to overseas partners, earning royalties while they handle local operations. This approach lets us expand globally without taking on the full risk and capital requirements of opening company-owned locations everywhere.

We’re also diversifying through strategic brand partnerships: developing signature menus with Michelin-starred chefs, creating meal kits with Dongwon F&B, doing upcycled fashion pop-ups with Musinsa.

Long-term, we’re expanding into merchandise, beverages, and food products—building a complete brand ecosystem around haenyeo and Jeju culinary culture. The goal isn’t just revenue growth. We’re building a cultural IP company that shares these traditions globally, moving far beyond just operating restaurants.

What have you achieved so far?

Our Jeju locations maintain 97% average reservation rates with 4.8-star satisfaction—solid proof that the performance-dining model works commercially.

Recognition has come from multiple sources. In 2024, we won the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Korean Tourism Star Award for convergence tourism content. Jeju Province gave us their Excellence Award for Social Value Realization, validating both our regional impact and innovation.

In 2023, the Korea Arts Management Service awarded us their Grand Prize for Global Leap in Arts Companies—recognition of our potential as cultural content, not just a restaurant business.

We’ve also secured seed and follow-on investment from domestic and international investors, giving us stable financial footing for growth.

These milestones have established us as more than a dining concept. They’ve laid groundwork for becoming a cultural IP company that carries haenyeo and Jeju culinary traditions to global audiences.

What makes your team uniquely capable?

We’ve built something rare: genuine intergenerational collaboration where haenyeo work alongside young creatives to build performances together. It’s not heritage preservation in the museum sense—it’s living tradition actively evolving.

We bring in serious artistic talent. Directors and creators from groups like Haddangse Theatre Company and Yohangza Theater Company elevate the theatrical elements. Michelin-starred chefs strengthen the culinary side. That combination—authentic cultural roots plus world-class creative execution—is our fundamental differentiator.

Our CEO, Kim Ha-won, comes from a haenyeo family and studied acting at Korea National University of Arts. She brings both deep cultural understanding and artistic sophistication, plus the leadership to orchestrate all these moving parts.

The result is a collaborative structure where tradition and modernity, art and cuisine, all work in harmony. That’s how we’ve developed haenyeo and Jeju culinary culture into content that can compete globally.

Tell us about your international expansion strategy.

We’ve spent years testing international interest—attending trade shows in Singapore, Hong Kong, and elsewhere, gauging market responses firsthand. Those experiences confirmed that our performance-dining model translates across cultures.

This year we moved from exploration to execution. In April 2025, we established Haenyeo Kitchen Group Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, creating our first international entity. By July, we’d transitioned to a joint venture with local partner WILT VENTURE BUILDER, strengthening both our capital position and operational capabilities in-market.

October brings the real test: opening at The Arts House, Singapore’s national cultural institution. This is our first sustained international operation, taking what we’ve proven in Jeju and running it long-term on a global stage.

Singapore matters for several reasons. It’s a global hub for food culture and arts, drawing sophisticated audiences from across Asia and beyond. If our model works there—if haenyeo stories and Jeju cuisine can captivate such a diverse, discerning market—it validates our entire international thesis.

This isn’t just about opening another location. It’s about proving that Korean regional culture, when delivered with theatrical innovation and culinary excellence, can become globally relevant. It’s our foundation for spreading haenyeo and Jeju narratives across Asia and eventually worldwide.

How has the Tourism Global Challenge program supported this expansion?

The program has provided critical infrastructure for international growth—the kind of support that’s hard to secure as an early-stage cultural enterprise.

Personnel funding let us build team capacity. Service fees enabled new content development specifically tailored for global markets. Those are the basics, but they matter enormously.

The most important piece has been IP protection. International expansion lives or dies on whether you can protect your intellectual property. We’re actively securing trademark and copyright registrations for our integrated performance-dining model. That’s not just legal housekeeping—it’s what lets us license content internationally and build a scalable business beyond physical locations.

The program also opened doors to local partners, investors, and institutions we wouldn’t have accessed otherwise. Those relationships are fundamental to navigating new markets successfully.

Ultimately, the Tourism Global Challenge gave us stable institutional and financial footing at exactly the stage we needed it—helping us transition from a promising concept to a viable international enterprise.

Why should investors back Haenyeo Kitchen Group?

Three reasons stand out.

First, we’ve already de-risked the model. Our Jeju locations prove the concept works commercially: 97% reservation rates, 4.8-star satisfaction, consistent performance over time. Investors aren’t betting on an untested idea—they’re scaling something with demonstrated market fit.

Second, we’re executing international expansion right now, not planning it. We’ve established our Singapore entity, formed a joint venture with capable local partners, and we’re opening at The Arts House—a prestigious national institution—in October. This is concrete momentum, not just ambition. We’re proving the model can travel beyond Jeju and succeed in a competitive global market.

Third, we’re building IP, not just restaurants. The content itself—the integration of performance and dining, the cultural narratives we’ve developed—is becoming a protected asset through trademark and copyright registration. That means our growth path includes licensing revenue and partnership models that scale faster and more efficiently than opening locations one by one.

Investment in Haenyeo Kitchen Group captures three things simultaneously: proven stability, active expansion, and long-term growth through IP monetization. That’s a compelling combination.

Any final thoughts you’d like to share?

This October, we’re opening at Singapore’s The Arts House under the JEJU HAENYEO brand. We’re putting the haenyeo story front and center, presenting it more directly and powerfully than ever before.

It’s a significant moment for us, and we’d deeply appreciate the interest and support of everyone who cares about Korean culture reaching global audiences. Thank you.