Tourism Organization Announces 2022 Smart Tourism City Development Project Competition

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization announced that they will accept applications for the ‘2022 Smart Tourism City Development Project’ from the 30th to December 30th to create a convenient travel environment using various smart technologies.

The Smart Tourism City Development Project aims to provide travel convenience by integrating various smart tourism elements at popular tourist destinations, strengthen regional tourism competitiveness, and establish a smart tourism ecosystem. Through a pilot project conducted in 2020, the first domestic smart tourism city was launched in Incheon (Jung-gu, Gaehangjang) in July this year. Currently, three locations selected as smart tourism city development sites this year?Suseong-gu in Daegu, Yeosu in Jeollanam-do, and Suwon in Gyeonggi-do?are under development.

In this call for applications, reflecting local governments’ interest and expected demand, the number of selected sites has been increased to six. Two sites will be selected for each of the three types: transportation-linked (local governments with KTX, airports, etc.), tourist attraction type (local governments nationwide), and small-scale type (local governments with populations under 150,000), totaling six sites. Participating local governments must choose one type considering the size and characteristics of their region when applying.

Also, whereas previously only consortia composed of local governments and private sectors could apply, this year local governments can apply independently to reduce their initial burden. However, if a local government is selected as a candidate?twice the number per type?through document screening and receives 50 million KRW in national funding, they must form a private consortium to establish a detailed project plan. A total of 12 candidate local governments (four per type) will be selected and, after detailed project plan presentations and on-site evaluations, six final sites will be chosen in March next year. The six selected consortia will receive 3.5 billion KRW in national funding. Through agreements with the Korea Tourism Organization, various projects implementing region-specific smart tourism elements by type will be jointly promoted until the end of next year.

Kim Gwongi, head of the Smart Tourism Project Team at the Korea Tourism Organization, stated, “To ensure the stable expansion of the smart tourism city project entering its third year, we have significantly expanded the development sites this year,” and added, “We have also produced and distributed the ‘Smart Tourism City Development Guidelines,’ which include smart tourism city construction plans, related services, and project examples, to assist local governments in establishing their smart tourism city development plans.”