“The goal is to achieve 30 million tourists to Korea early by 2030. By 2033, we will achieve the goal of at least 40 million foreigners and 120 trillion won in tourism consumption.”
The 10th National Tourism Strategy Meeting was held at the Seoul Center of the Korea Tourism Organization in Jung-gu, Seoul, presided over by the Prime Minister. On the same day, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced the “Three Strategies for Tourism Innovation, becoming a global tourism powerhouse with more than 30 million entry.”
There are three main points of content. The government vowed to “innovate tourism to Korea” for foreign travelers visiting Korea and “innovate domestic tourism” to make it easier for Koreans to enjoy domestic travel.
Finally, he said he would “innovate tourism policy and industrial base” by checking the current system overall, including laws and regulations, for the two aforementioned changes.
Create inbound tourism zones for the 2nd and 3rd “We will prevent concentration in the metropolitan area.”
The government was the first to point out the concentration of foreigners in the metropolitan area and the decrease in the number of days of domestic travel. The plan is to create a “second and third inbound tourism zone” in order for more foreign tourists to visit the provinces and promote domestic demand.
At a briefing held the day before the meeting, Kim Dae-hyun, the second vice minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, drew the line, saying, “The second and third inbound tourism rights, which are carried out as pan-ministerial projects, will be carried out separately from projects already being carried out, such as existing tourist hub cities.”
The newly created inbound tourism zone plans to select about two of the four poles (Dongnam, Daekyung, Jungbu, and Honam) and three specials (Jeju, Gangwon, and Jeonbuk). The decision is made through a local government demand survey and a joint selection committee of ministries.
He also mentioned various measures to connect the K-culture and the tourism market in Korea, which has become more interested worldwide.
The government announced that it would create a large performance-type arena in the metropolitan area and a ‘K-Content’ hub space such as a Hallyu experience space.
Next, it was also discussed how to solve the inconvenience that real foreign travelers encounter when they come to Korea.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that it will extend the temporary exemption of K-ETA, which was scheduled to end this year, for another year in consultation with the Ministry of Justice.
It also plans to develop a tourism pass exclusively for foreigners that integrates transportation cards and admission tickets to tourist destinations and lay the technical foundation for using its own payment system in Korea.
Expanding to large companies participating in half-price vacation, we will make a Michelin guide in the tourism sector
The government has also raised its voice on domestic tourism innovation to improve qualitative indicators in the tourism sector. It promised to support travel expenses and promote domestic travel accommodation, while also working on developing content to create reasons for travel to the public.
The plan is to promote “half-price travel,” which refunds 50% of expenses with local love gift certificates when traveling to population-decreased areas, and to implement policies that touch the skin by establishing “annual discount coupons” and “island accommodation discount coupons.”
He also acknowledged that there was something to be desired about the support for workers’ half-price vacation. Kim Dae-hyun, the second vice minister, said, “Currently, the support for ‘half-price vacation’ is only targeting small and medium-sized companies, and we will consider whether it will be able to spread to large companies as well as mid-sized companies in the future.”
In addition, the strategy is to create a tourist version of a Michelin guide “Hotspot Guide (tentative name)” that inspires tourists to travel voluntarily to secure channels for discovering and promoting attractive destinations in the region.
’10 billion won’ investment in AI fund in tourism sector to change paradigm due to reorganization of tourism law and system
The biggest difference from this National Tourism Strategy Meeting is ‘reorganization’ through policy and institutional innovation.
If the existing meetings were simply bent on taking care of the immediate results with a certain period of campaigning, the meeting showed a willingness to change the overall structure of the industry from a more mid- to long-term perspective.
The biggest change is that the system will be fundamentally reorganized, such as completely revising the existing Basic Tourism Act and dividing the current Tourism Promotion Act into the Tourism Industry Act (tentative name) and the Regional Tourism Development Act (tentative name).
The government judged that the reorganization of the law is a necessary procedure to foster the tourism industry and develop local tourism resources suitable for the AI era.
Accordingly, it is expected that there will be changes in many fields such as the special tourist zone system and cultural tourism festival. The keyword is ‘choose and focus’.
The special tourism zone system, which began in 1993, will be reorganized into a ‘global tourism zone’ based on its growth potential and intensively fostered at the national level. The cultural tourism festival also clearly shares its role with local governments, and the government intends to focus only on festivals worth fostering globally.
It also mentioned countermeasures in the AI era. In 2026, it plans to invest 10 billion won in a new fund specializing in artificial intelligence in the tourism sector.
In addition, he also mentioned detailed systems such as institutionalizing shared accommodation for Koreans and allowing the conversion of non-professional employment (E-9) visas for international students.
Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said, “This year, as the APEC summit will be held in Gyeongju, it is an opportunity to publicize the power of Korean culture, arts, and contents to the world,” adding, “The Lee Jae-myung government will foster the K-content culture and tourism industry as a key strategic industry in the future and revitalize pan-government discussions and private consultations.”
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