Tourism Organization-Suwon City Sign 'Business Agreement for Creating a Smart Tourism City'

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 16th that it will sign a business agreement with Suwon City to create a smart tourism city, aiming to promote digital transformation in the tourism industry and provide customized smart tourism services.

Now in its second year, the smart tourism city creation project integrates ICT technology into existing tourist sites to provide comprehensive smart tourism services across various fields such as guidance, transportation, and shopping. This year, out of 28 local governments that applied, Suwon City (Suwon Hwaseong Tourist Special Zone) was finally selected as the target site for the smart tourism city creation project in June through written and on-site evaluations conducted by a panel of experts in each field.

Through this agreement, the two organizations will specify cooperation measures to successfully develop the Suwon Hwaseong Tourist Special Zone into a smart tourism city. They plan to begin development work by the end of February next year in collaboration with private companies participating in the consortium.

Suwon Hwaseong, a representative UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in Korea, has faced many restrictions in tourism infrastructure development. However, in the newly introduced smart tourism city, smart technology will be used to provide tourists with new tourism experiences without physical damage to Suwon Hwaseong. After completion, visitors to Suwon Hwaseong will experience integrated tourism services covering guidance, movement, experience, convenience, and benefits all through a single mobile device. Customized services provided by an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant and precise tourism information services based on the visitor’s current location will be available so that no separate travel preparation is necessary. In particular, various immersive experience contents, including the extended reality (XR) mobility ‘Hwaseong Eocha 1795 Haeng,’ which recreates the route of King Jeongjo’s royal procession, are expected to further highlight the charm of Suwon.

Kim Gwongi, head of the Smart Tourism Project Team at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, “Smart tourism cities will be spotlighted as a new means to minimize unnecessary face-to-face contact in the COVID-19 era and to qualitatively improve the local tourism industry.” He added, “The organization plans to add a total of 25 smart tourism cities by 2025 and use the developed smart tourism cities as standards to promote voluntary smart tourism development across local governments nationwide.”