Incheon Gaehangjang Launches Korea's First 'Smart Tourism City'

Using the 'Incheon e-ji' application around the Incheon Open Port area. (Photo by Korea Tourism Organization)

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 29th that the ‘2021 Incheon Smart Tourism City,’ jointly developed with Incheon Metropolitan City and the Incheon Tourism Organization, will officially launch its services with an online inauguration ceremony on the 30th.

Incheon Smart Tourism City was selected as a pilot project site through a public contest last September. It was established with a total budget of 8.8 billion KRW (3.5 billion KRW from the central government, 3.5 billion KRW from local government, and 1.8 billion KRW in private in-kind contributions). Over a period of 10 months, the Korea Tourism Organization and Incheon developed smart tourism services in the Jung-gu Open Port area, consisting of the ‘Incheon-eji’ application that allows convenient travel around the Open Port area with a single app, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) immersive content recreating historical figures and old street scenes, and seamless public Wi-Fi providing a smart environment without data concerns.

Incheon Smart Tourism City offers multiple smart tourism elements simultaneously to visitors of the Open Port area through the mobile app ‘Incheon-eji,’ providing customized services tailored to tourists. Visitors can enjoy AI-based travel recommendation services and explore the Open Port area following personalized passes and routes on the map according to their tastes and preferences. Additionally, they can experience various immersive contents such as AR docents and AR panoramas at a total of 12 locations. Mobility services including reservations and payments for the Incheon City Tour, the sea train to Wolmido, and the Open Port story bicycle, as well as luggage storage service usage and payment, translation, and post-tax refund services are also provided. The Incheon-eji app is currently available for download on Android’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store.

Services for foreign tourists have also been prepared. The service supports four languages including English and is linked with the 1330 Tourist Interpretation Text Chat Service, enabling tourists from various countries to enjoy smart tourism services without inconvenience. In particular, targeting Chinese tourists, the Korea Tourism Organization collaborated with Tencent, China’s largest IT company. As a result, they successfully launched an Incheon mini-program on WeChat, which has 1.2 billion Chinese members.

The smart tourism city inauguration ceremony will be pre-recorded and produced in consideration of COVID-19 social distancing measures and broadcast from 2 p.m. on the 30th via the ‘Incheon Travel Market’ YouTube channel. The event will include a business briefing with progress and plan announcements related to the smart tourism city, as well as introductions to various smart tourism services in Incheon, including Incheon-eji. This live video, featuring demonstrations of AR content and virtual tours, will later be uploaded to the Korea Tourism Organization’s YouTube channel and others.

Kim Gwongi, head of the Smart Tourism Project Team at the Korea Tourism Organization, stated, “Incheon, the first smart tourism city, will serve as a leading model for smart tourism in domestic and international tourist destinations striving for tourism revival after COVID-19. Starting with Incheon, we plan to establish 25 smart tourism cities by 2025 and will work to expand smart tourism nationwide to local governments based on this foundation.”