Gwangju City Supports Shared Office Spaces for Travel Industry

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 12th that it will support a temporary office that can be jointly used by the local travel industry, which is facing a survival crisis due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

This support is the first among local governments nationwide to allocate its own budget to reduce the biggest burden of the travel industry, which is rent expenses.

So far, the travel industry has identified rent burden as the most urgent issue.

Travel agencies, which have fallen into serious management difficulties due to the prolonged stagnation of the tourism industry, are considering temporary or permanent closure, but it is difficult even to do so because they are tied up with various loans such as emergency loans received after COVID-19.

In February, the Travel Industry Emergency Countermeasures Committee, which visited Gwangju City, appealed that support for shared offices is urgently needed due to the increasing burden from continuous costs such as office rent and maintenance fees in a situation where closure is not an option.

Accordingly, Gwangju City decided to provide free single-person office space for changing the business address on the business registration certificate of travel agencies to help maintain the business of the travel industry in crisis, and plans to support various ancillary facilities necessary for work such as meeting rooms, internet, and office equipment in the office space.

In addition, to continuously alleviate the burden of rent, the city has requested the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to temporarily relax the regulations on the transfer of tourism business registration certificates, which define the use of registered buildings for the travel industry as neighborhood living facilities and office facilities, so that address changes to rent-free houses are possible, and is continuously urging the nationwide expansion of the ‘Seoul Area Travel Industry Support Project,’ which is currently promoted only in the Seoul area.

Kim Jun-young, Director of the Culture, Tourism and Sports Office of the city, said, “We are promoting this project as an excellent case of proactive administration to overcome the difficulties of the travel industry, a major pillar of Gwangju’s tourism industry, which is struggling due to COVID-19,” and added, “We will continue to prepare various support measures so that the travel industry can overcome the COVID-19 crisis and make a new leap forward.”