Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Supports Attracting Foreign Tourists by Improving Local Tourism Transportation

Applications Open for the 'Regional Specialized Tourism Transportation Support Project'

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is partnering with the Korea Tourism Organization to improve regional tourism transportation in order to spread foreign tourists' visits, which are concentrated in Seoul, to other regions.

On the 23rd, the Ministry and the Tourism Organization announced that applications for the '2025 Regional Specialized Tourism Transportation Support Project' will be accepted until the 24th of next month. Through this support project, the Ministry will select one 'Super Metropolitan Tourism Transportation Innovation Leading Zone' and two 'Tourism Transportation Promotion Areas' targeting regions with declining populations.

This public contest is a follow-up measure to the 'Tourism Market Stabilization Measures' announced at the '9th National Tourism Strategy Meeting' held on the 26th of last month. The focus is on creating successful tourism transportation models tailored to regional characteristics to help spread foreign tourists' visits, which are concentrated in Seoul, to other regions.

The 'Super Metropolitan Tourism Transportation Innovation Leading Zone' aims to strengthen the connectivity between regional transportation hubs such as local airports, train stations, and express/intercity bus terminals and nearby tourist attractions, enabling domestic and international tourists to travel more easily and conveniently within the region. In particular, to fully showcase the region's attractions and improve the quality of regional tourism, a variety of projects promoted by the Ministry and the Tourism Organization will be supported in a package format, ranging from expanding tourism transportation networks to improving public transportation convenience services such as luggage storage and foreign language guidance, as well as developing tourism products in collaboration with travel agencies and enhancing tourism service quality. Selected regions will receive up to 2.5 billion KRW in national funding over three years (1.2 billion KRW in the first year, 650 million KRW in the second year, and 650 million KRW in the third year).

The 'Tourism Transportation Promotion Areas' target regions with declining populations that have weak public transportation accessibility but high tourism potential. If selected as a tourism transportation promotion area, transportation modes suitable for the region's characteristics will be chosen, and routes will be operated considering the movement patterns of both tourists and local residents. These routes will be designed so that on weekdays they can be used for commuting by workers and school attendance by students, and on weekends they can accommodate concentrated use by tourists, thereby enhancing convenience and satisfaction for both residents of depopulated areas and tourists. Two selected regions will each receive 400 million KRW in national funding for one year.

Kim Jeong-hoon, Director of Tourism Policy at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, stated, "According to the 2023 Foreign Tourist Survey, 80.3% of foreign tourists who visited Korea came to Seoul, which is an increase from 76.4% in 2019 before COVID-19. We will create successful tourism transportation models tailored to regional characteristics to disperse the tourism demand concentrated in Seoul to other regions and enable convenient travel within regions by public transportation."