Kim Jang-sil, president of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), said that the KTO will discover 1,200 technology convergence tourism venture startups and nurture three tourism unicorn companies by 2027.
“We will support their digital transformation and global expansion with the five major Korean tourism platforms as main driving forces,” Kim said in a press conference held at the Korea Press Center on Jan. 14.
The press conference was held immediately after the 6th Basic Tourism Promotion Plan (2023-2027) was finalized on Jan. 12.
“We will promote four key tasks under the slogan of ‘Korean Tourism Impressing the World’ in order to attain the goal of 30 million foreign tourists and $30 billion in tourism revenue by 2027 which we set in the basic plan,” President Kim emphasized.
The four major tasks are strengthening K-content to target foreign tourists, revitalizing the local tourism with rich storytelling, strengthening support for the private sector, such as companies and providing personalized services for travelers.
In particular, Kim suggested investor matching and the provision of experts and information as ways to foster tourism venture startups.
“We will expand the opening of tourism big data and digital content and support for inbound services and product marketing,” he said.
The five major public platforms he proposed are Korea Tourism Data Lab, Korea Tourism Contents Lab, Korea Tourism Industry Portal, Every Corner of Korea and Visit Korea.
In order to relieve tourism regulations, Kim clarified his position that he would also work to help Korean tourism companies expand their business areas and activities such as revising related laws, systems and customs to make them suit the times.
“Regulations will be drastically eased, helping Korean tourism companies work based on creativity and freedom,” Kim said.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also cited the utilization of K-culture and deregulation as the current government’s important tourism vision when announcing the basic plan.
Kim also emphasized the need to provide personalized tourism services based on data for the digitization of tourism throughout whole travel time.
Kim Jang-sil, president of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), holds a meeting with reporters in which he said KTO would implement “K-tourism,” moving people around the world and making Korean people happy at the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, last Dec. 14.
“We will conduct target marketing in consideration of destinations, foods and programs and events popular among travelers through data,” Kim said.
“Our goal is to rank Korea third in the tourism information and communication technology (ICT) sector of the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Travel & Tourism Development Index in 2027.”
“We will spearhead a large-scale campaign to visit Korea to rev up the stagnant Korean economy and attract foreign tourists.” Kim stressed, regarding the 2023-2024 Visit Korea Years declared on Jan. 12.
“We will attract 30 million foreign tourists to Korea by 2027 whatever it takes.”
To this end, he pledged to expand the scope of the Korean Cultural Wave to include not only popular culture such as K-pop and K-drama, but also other cultures such as Korea’s classical music, art, traditional cultures, food, clothing, and houses and combine all of them with Korean tourism, he explained.
In addition, Kim will implement a policy to strengthen local sojourn travel through life tourism, working holidays, rural tourism, and a digital tourism resident ID card project. Kim’s idea is to expand tourism with stories by expanding interesting storytelling.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that it will hold the 2023 Korea Grand Sale from January 12 to February 28 with the Visit Korea Committee.
The Korea Grand Sale is Korea’s major shopping tourism festival that has been held since 2011 with the voluntary participation of various private companies in the fields of aviation, lodging, shopping, and entertainment to promote foreign tourists’ visits to Korea and increase tourism income during off-seasons in the Korean tourism industry.
Meanwhile, the KTO will participate in the 2023 International Tourism Fair (FITUR) to be held in Madrid, Spain from Jan. 18 to 22. It will run the Korea Tourism Promotion Center at the FITUR.
In 2019, the tourism expo attracted about 260,000 people from 165 countries around the world.
In celebration of the Visit Korea Year 2023-2024, the KTO will intensively promotes Korea’s old and new cultures at this fair to increase the number of European tourists as overseas travel is making a full recovery these days. Their visits to Korea are expected to grow.
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