Korea Tourism Organization and Kakao Host '2021 Tourism Data Utilization Contest'

Support Including 100 Million KRW and Corporate Incubation Programs for 50 Teams

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 10th that it will hold the '2021 Tourism Data Utilization Contest' in collaboration with Kakao.

This contest expands the scope of the 'Smart Tourism App Development Contest' (held since 2013), which was previously limited to tourism and app development, to encourage the development and idea planning of various types of products and services such as web services and software. Additionally, new collaboration partners and contest categories have been introduced, and the scale of awards and post-support have been expanded.

Kakao, as a co-host, supports contest registration, page creation, judging, and promotion. The partner, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, provides financial and non-financial services such as investment attraction for winning works and bonus points in nurturing programs to support growth into innovative startups.

In the contest categories, the Korea Tourism Organization has newly established an 'Idea Planning Category' that allows participation with ideas alone, in addition to the 'Product and Service Development Category' which requires development of apps, web services, software, etc. The scale of awards and prize money has also been increased compared to the previous year. The number of winning teams has expanded from the previous 11 to a total of 50, including 40 in the Product and Service Development Category and 10 in the Idea Planning Category. A total prize money of 100 million KRW will be distributed differentially among the winners.

Winning teams will receive one-stop consulting services through the Organization's Tourism Enterprise Support Center and domestic and international promotion and marketing of launched products and services through the Organization's channels. Bonus points will be given when applying for the 'Start-Up NEST' startup nurturing program operated by the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund. Various benefits are also provided, such as opportunities to participate in the 'U-CONNECT Demo Day' and bonus points when applying for residency at the 'Seoul Startup Growth Center' operated by the Korea Technology Venture Foundation. Among these, the grand prize winner in the Idea Planning Category will also be given the opportunity to participate in the finals of the 'Government-wide Startup Competition' hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

The application period is from today until the 25th of next month, and applicants must choose one category between Product and Service Development and Idea Planning. Use of the Tour API is mandatory for all categories. Bonus points will be awarded for utilizing tourism big data APIs. Anyone interested in tourism and program development can participate by submitting proposals and explanatory materials online. Information on contest applications and related details can be found on the contest website.

Kim Kyungsoo, Head of the Digital Content Center at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, "This contest is characterized by promoting the development of various forms of convergence products and services linked with other industries and fields," adding, "In a situation where the social and technological environment surrounding tourism is rapidly changing due to COVID-19, we hope that products and services with timeliness and effectiveness will be created through this contest."