Tourism Organization Selects 6 Outstanding Companies in Tourism Startup Global Challenge

Officials from outstanding companies in the Tourism Startup Global Challenge receiving awards.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 6th that it held the 'Tourism Startup Global Challenge Demo Day (Investment Attraction Presentation Evaluation)' and selected six outstanding companies.

The Global Challenge is a support project for promising domestic tourism companies in their growth phase to expand overseas. It provides business growth commercialization funds, pre-verification of market suitability to refine entry strategies, education to strengthen core competencies for overseas expansion (consulting, expert mentoring, support for developing overseas expansion tools, etc.), as well as support for establishing overseas subsidiaries, roadshows, and business matching.

To operate the project efficiently and enhance its effectiveness, the Tourism Organization selected three overseas specialized accelerator companies at the beginning of the year (CNT Tech, Y&Archer, Awesome Ventures). In May, together with the accelerator companies, they discovered and nurtured a total of 27 participating companies and held this event to facilitate investment attraction and networking among the participating companies.

Twelve companies selected through preliminary document evaluation conducted presentations and Q&A sessions. Based on criteria such as tourism relevance, business capability, marketability, and product/service competitiveness, six outstanding companies were selected.

The grand prize was awarded to ‘Caplix,’ a Jeju rent-a-car sharing platform based on big data and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which is on the verge of expanding overseas. The two excellence awards went to ‘Onda,’ which has advanced accommodation management software to support optimal decision-making when selecting accommodations, and ‘Nua,’ which leads innovation in the airline ticket distribution market using AI technology.

The merit awards were given to three companies: ‘The Swing,’ a kickboard sharing service that enhances accessibility to nearby tourist attractions; ‘Glimmedia,’ which operates STARPLAY, a global K-pop star fandom app in 145 countries worldwide; and ‘Tripbitos,’ which provides a video-based online travel platform service where users can watch travel videos from around the world and book the lowest-priced hotels.

The selected outstanding companies will receive business promotion incentives of 10 million KRW for the grand prize, 5 million KRW each for the excellence awards, and 2.5 million KRW each for the merit awards. The accelerator Y&Archer, which produced the grand prize-winning company, was awarded a prize of 2.5 million KRW.

Andeoksoo, Head of the Tourism Enterprise Support Office at the Korea Tourism Organization, stated, "We plan to continuously strengthen support projects for the overseas expansion of domestic tourism startups and hope for much interest and participation in next year’s projects."