Seoul Festa 2022, New Hallyu Tourism Events and Other Seoul Signature Contents to Secure Demand Ahead of Tourism Recovery
Expanded Participation in Community Sports through Strengthened Public Operation Guidelines
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 6th that it plans to focus all policy efforts on supporting 16.5 billion KRW in operating funds to help recover the tourism and sports sectors hit by COVID-19, and expanding 199 community sports facilities by 2023.
First, Seoul City will provide 3 million KRW each to all registered small tourism enterprises, totaling 16.5 billion KRW in crisis recovery funds. Applications will begin on the 14th, and after verifying eligibility, payments will start sequentially from the 21st. In addition, essential expenses for safe travel, personnel operation costs, and promotional expenses necessary in the With-Corona era will be supported for small comprehensive travel agencies to encourage activities to attract foreign tourists.
Furthermore, Seoul City will focus on creating a new tourism ecosystem based on the convergence with digital technology so that citizens can access tourism more safely and conveniently. Problems such as the proliferation of low-cost and optional tours and the market encroachment by global OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) have been identified as factors that degrade the value of Seoul tourism and weaken the competitiveness of the tourism industry.
Accordingly, Seoul City plans to improve systems for tourism innovation by preparing standard contracts and operate public-private governance to induce voluntary self-regulation efforts within the industry. Additionally, by expanding digital services, Seoul will establish a ‘Seoul-type tourism ecosystem’ and build a new tourism paradigm.
Various tourism events will also be newly introduced. These events, planned with substance and reflecting Seoul’s unique values such as industry, history, and culture, aim to relieve citizens’ tourism thirst and will be held regularly to establish themselves as representative tourism content of Seoul. In the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) sector, Seoul will strengthen its urban competitiveness with distinctive events befitting its status as the world’s 3rd largest city for hosting international conferences. Growth-stage nurturing programs will be operated to support MICE events in attracting tourists and achieving successful city marketing.
Seoul has also set a goal to improve citizens’ sports welfare by building infrastructure so that anyone can conveniently enjoy community sports within a 5-minute distance from their home and by expanding opportunities for participation in physical activities. The focus will be on expanding community sports facilities, securing an additional 199 facilities by 2023. To overcome the fundamental limitations of large cities with scarce available land, underutilized idle spaces will be transformed into new community sports spaces, and improvements to private and school sports facilities will be supported on the condition of opening them to local residents, securing community sports facilities through various methods.
With the principle that all public sports facilities belong to all Seoul citizens, the public nature of facility use will be further strengthened. Standard operating guidelines such as expanding online reservation services will be prepared so that general citizens, not exclusive clubs or groups, can use public sports facilities without burden, thereby increasing citizens’ accessibility to sports facilities and participation rates in physical activities.
Choi Kyung-joo, Director of the Tourism and Sports Bureau of Seoul City, said, “In 2022, the Year of the Black Tiger, we will do our utmost to revive the tourism and sports enjoyment opportunities lost by citizens over the past two years, restore our daily lives to some extent, and use this as a stepping stone to leap forward again as a global representative city.”
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
