[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] A court ruling has upheld the administrative sanction of canceling the designation of a government-appointed dedicated travel agency that outsourced some of its work to other general travel agencies without directly performing the tasks.
According to the legal community on the 31st, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 12 (Presiding Judge Hong Sun-wook) ruled against travel agency A in a lawsuit filed against the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism seeking to cancel the cancellation of its designation as a 'dedicated travel agency for attracting Chinese group tourists.'
The court stated, "If a dedicated travel agency does not directly perform travel tasks and a non-designated general travel agency performs the work under its name, this is considered lending its name."
It further ruled, "If a dedicated travel agency is allowed to have a non-designated travel agency perform domestic travel tasks for Chinese group tourists it has attracted, the purpose of strictly designating and managing dedicated travel agencies would be nullified."
Agency A was designated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2011 as a 'dedicated travel agency for attracting Chinese group tourists' following group tourism negotiations between the Korean and Chinese governments, and was responsible for attracting Chinese tourists.
In September 2018, Agency A signed a contract with general travel agency B to outsource some tasks such as tour interpretation and guidance, and made several payments.
In response, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism canceled Agency A's designation as a dedicated travel agency, stating that "Agency A lent its dedicated travel agency status to general travel agency B."
Agency A claimed that all schedules and services of Agency B were conducted under its instructions or through consultation, but when the Ministry did not accept this, it filed an administrative lawsuit.
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