First Discussion Forum on the 12th at Korea Tourism Organization Seoul Center
The public and private sectors are joining forces for the digital innovation of the tourism industry.
On the 14th, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced the launch of the 'Special Task Force for Digital Innovation in the Tourism Industry' to establish a future blueprint for the tourism industry.
The special task force, led by Yong Hoseong, Director of Tourism Industry Policy at the Ministry, includes representatives from public institutions such as the Korea Tourism Organization, the policy implementation agency, and the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, the policy research institute. It also involves private experts in promising future technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, as well as stakeholders from tourism venture companies, travel agencies, and the international conference industry.
On the 12th, the task force held its first discussion at the Korea Tourism Organization Seoul Center with only public institution representatives participating, where they discussed digital innovation strategies to establish a future growth foundation for the K-tourism industry.
The participants agreed that the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution and the preparation for the upcoming structural changes in the industry are essentially digital transformation. They also shared a sense of crisis that while digital transformation positively impacts the production efficiency of tourism companies, it may cause a digital divide and a global winner-takes-all structure, potentially leading to the obsolescence of traditional tourism businesses.
Furthermore, the participants discussed ▲ establishing a support system for digital transformation by tourism industry sector and stage ▲ creating a data-friendly ecosystem ▲ cultivating digital talent ▲ and revising digital-related laws and regulations. They also suggested actively responding to the expansion of tourism companies' overseas market entry to counter the domestic market share of global tourism companies.
The task force plans to hold four additional discussions with private experts in tourism technology to derive future digital innovation strategies for the tourism industry.
Yong Hoseong, Director of Tourism Industry Policy at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, "The emergence of artificial intelligence, big data, and ChatGPT is revolutionizing the tourism paradigm. Through broad and in-depth discussions encompassing academia and the private sector, we will lead the digital transformation of the tourism industry, which is emerging as a cutting-edge industry, and meticulously support K-tourism to function as a new future growth engine."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
