The exhibition hall is bustling with people.

From colorful local specialties to return gifts reflecting the unique characteristics of each region.

Visitors are carefully looking over various products set up at each booth.

The 1st Gohyang Sarang Festa opened today (the 19th), bringing together return gifts for the hometown love donation program from across the country in one place and allowing visitors to directly participate in donations.

Co-hosted by SBS and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, this event features some 60 outstanding local governments nationwide showcasing their regions' representative specialties.

Visitors who tour the exhibition hall and complete the "Nationwide 8-Province Stamp Tour" can receive souvenirs such as key rings and mats.

[Jeon Jae-hyung / Gohyang Sarang Festa participant: I learned about the (hometown love donation program) for the first time today. I found out how many different return gifts each region has, and it was a great time to be able to receive various items while participating in different events.]

Unique hands-on experience booths also drew attention.

From an experience where visitors could directly lift a 500 million won bundle of cash made of actual 50,000 won bills to eco-friendly souvenirs recycled from scrapped banknotes, visitors flocked to the booth of the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation, which operates the local currency system serving as a solid pillar of the local economy.

[Seong Chang-hoon / President of Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation: If our citizens make more use of currency goods made at the currency booth and use local currency more, I think it will be of great help in solving the region's biggest problem of population extinction...]

A special egg cooking show was held at the booth of the Korea Egg Industry Council, and a YouTube live broadcast to encourage online donations continued for two hours, introducing representative return gifts from the participating local government booths.

[Please show a lot of love for Muan. Go hometown love donation program!]

The Korea Certified Public Tax Accountants Association focused on promoting the hometown love donation program and publicizing tax deduction benefits to visitors.

[Goo Jae-ii / President of the Korea Certified Public Tax Accountants Association: When you make a hometown love donation, you can now get a full refund for up to 100,000 won, and you can truly receive return gifts equivalent to 30 percent of the donation amount.]

On-site donations by visitors to practice love for their hometowns continued.

[Kim Min-jae / Vice Minister of the Interior and Safety: If you use the app, you can still donate conveniently and easily than you might think. And you can also apply for return gifts right on the spot.]

The hometown love donation program is a system where individuals donate to regions other than their place of residence, receiving tax deduction benefits along with local specialties as return gifts.

It is evaluated as a priming water that can revitalize the economy and respond to the crisis of regional extinction in local cities experiencing tax revenue shortages.

[Shin Seung-keun / President of the Korea Research Institute for Local Finance: Unlike other donations, residents can use it for welfare they want without any restrictions on its purpose. I think the hometown love donation program is a good system that can bring a lot of financial resources to the regions in the future.]

SBS and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety plan to use this event to make the hometown love donation program more familiarly known and expand the contact points between regions and the public.

The 1st Gohyang Sarang Festa will continue until 5 PM tomorrow at the aT Center in Yangjae, Seoul.

Anyone can view the unique return gifts and experience programs of some 60 local governments nationwide for free.

(Reported by Hong Seung-yeon, Video by Lim Dong-guk and Kim Hyung-jin VJ, Video Editing by Won Hyung-hee, Design by Lee Jung-joo, Produced by SBS Digital News)