Korea Tourism Organization Announces Recruitment of Beneficiary Companies for '2021 Tourism Enterprise Innovation Voucher Support Project'

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 19th that it will recruit beneficiary companies for the ‘2021 Tourism Enterprise Innovation Voucher Support Project’ until May 14.

The Innovation Voucher Support Project was first implemented last year to support the establishment of a growth foundation through innovation activities by providing services specialized in business advancement for tourism enterprises in the form of vouchers. This year, voucher points worth a total of 5.04 billion KRW will be provided to 142 companies, including 20 companies each for ‘Large Voucher (100 million KRW)’ and ‘Medium Voucher (50 million KRW)’, and 102 companies for ‘Small Voucher (20 million KRW)’.

The voucher points can be used for various professional service activities aimed at corporate innovation, such as discovering smart tourism projects through the convergence of ICT and tourism, user experience (UI) and user environment (UX), and other business model transformations. This menu consists of 3 fields, 6 programs, and 13 tourism innovation voucher services. Large and medium vouchers can combine up to 3 services, while small vouchers can combine up to 2 services. Voucher points can be used until November 30.

The application period is from today until May 14, and only companies that qualify as small and medium enterprises under the Framework Act on Small and Medium Enterprises and are registered as tourism businesses under the Enforcement Decree of the Tourism Promotion Act can participate. The final selected companies will be announced at the end of May and will be chosen through document and presentation evaluations based on innovation potential, growth potential, and excellence in voucher utilization plans. To alleviate the burden on tourism companies struggling due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the Tourism Organization will replace the payment of self-contributions for selected companies with the subscription of performance guarantee insurance.

Detailed information can be found on the Innovation Voucher Project website and the announcement and recruitment section of the Korea Tourism Organization website. Applications can be submitted through the Innovation Voucher Project website.

Lee Young-geun, head of the Tourism Enterprise Development Team at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, “This recruitment has expanded the scale and target of support compared to last year, considering the difficulties faced by tourism companies due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Even after selection, we plan to strengthen support programs such as networking among companies and expert mentoring to maximize the performance of individual voucher projects.”