Ministry of Culture and Korea Tourism Organization Recruit Companies for Support Projects
Providing Customized Service Vouchers as Points
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 21st that, together with the Korea Tourism Organization, it will recruit beneficiary companies for the '2024 Tourism Enterprise Innovation Voucher Support Project' from the 22nd of this month until the 11th of next month to foster the future growth of small and medium tourism enterprises.
The Innovation Voucher Support Project provides services tailored to the demands of tourism enterprises, such as digital transformation, marketing, and management innovation, in the form of vouchers, connecting service providers and beneficiary companies.
The Korea Tourism Organization recruits both 'service providers' who offer services and 'beneficiary companies' who receive them. Beneficiary companies commission tasks to service providers, and the costs are paid by the organization.
Voucher points can be used by selecting up to three options from the tourism enterprise innovation voucher menu, which consists of 3 fields and 6 types. The innovation voucher menu (fields) types are ▲Digital Transformation (building online platforms and enhancing UX, adopting ICT solutions, introducing smart-based technologies such as robots, advancing big data utilization services) ▲Marketing (content creation and promotion based on smart technologies) ▲Other Management Innovation (management innovation services).
Notably, this year KT and SK Telecom have applied to participate as service providers for tasks related to the introduction of service robots and AI-based targeted marketing, respectively, which is expected to broadly expand the range of choices for service providers.
This year, voucher points worth a total of 5.4 billion KRW, an increase of 360 million KRW compared to last year, will be provided to 156 companies, including 15 companies receiving 'Large Vouchers' (100 million KRW), 36 companies receiving 'Medium Vouchers' (50 million KRW), and 105 companies receiving 'Small Vouchers' (20 million KRW).
2024 Tourism Enterprise Innovation Voucher Contest Poster Photo by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
Beneficiary companies must be small and medium enterprises as defined by the Framework Act on Small and Medium Enterprises and engaged in tourism-related businesses to participate in the competition. Professional evaluators will assess items such as innovation potential, growth potential, and excellence in voucher utilization plans, and announce the beneficiary companies at the end of March.
Large enterprises can also participate as service providers. After document screening regarding service quality appropriateness and stability, final selections will be made. In addition to vouchers, the Korea Tourism Organization plans to support smooth business operations of selected companies through one-on-one mentoring by specialized advisory groups in each field.
A particularly notable part of this recruitment is the special voucher for the introduction of service robots, with 2 large vouchers and 5 medium vouchers prioritized for the tourism accommodation and camping industries, which are experiencing labor shortages.
Especially this year, KT and SK Telecom have applied to participate as service providers for tasks related to the introduction of service robots and AI-based targeted marketing, respectively, which is expected to further expand the range of service provider options overall.
Detailed information about the recruitment can be found on the Innovation Voucher Project website, where applications are also accepted. Detailed information is also available on the Korea Tourism Industry Portal Touraz.
Kim Dong-il, Head of the Tourism Industry Division at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, “This year, it is expected that the overall service level will greatly improve as it is the first time since the start of the Innovation Voucher Project that large enterprises wish to participate as service providers,” adding, “Furthermore, through support for the introduction of service robots, we aim to help the accommodation industry, which is going through a difficult time due to labor shortages.”
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