The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization announced on July 7 that they held the '2025 Tourism Global Challenge Alumni Day' at The Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul on July 4.
This event was organized to promote mutual cooperation among tourism companies selected for the Tourism Global Challenge program from 2020 to this year, and to create practical collaboration opportunities with related organizations and domestic and international investment partners.
On the 4th, at The Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul, photos from the '2025 Tourism Global Challenge Alumni Day' event [Photo by Korea Tourism Organization]
The Tourism Global Challenge is a project in which the Korea Tourism Organization supports companies with innovative services in the tourism sector to expand into global markets. The Korea Tourism Organization has discovered and nurtured a total of 148 companies so far. At this year's third Alumni Day, approximately 160 people attended, including representatives from 58 tourism startups and 30 private partner companies in the tourism industry such as hotels and airlines.
During the first part, the Business Meetup session, about 120 business consultations were conducted through one-on-one matchmaking between private partner companies, relevant departments of the organization, and tourism startups.
The second part, consisting of lectures and networking sessions, featured Deokjin Seo, CEO of Nooa, a 2021 Tourism Global Challenge alumni company, who shared the growth story and overseas expansion success case of a travel tech startup. This was followed by a special lecture by Jaekwon Son, founder of The Miilk, a Silicon Valley-based global tech media platform, on 'The Era of AI Transformation: Application Strategies for the Tourism Industry and Innovation Strategies for Startups.'
Yang Kyungsoo, Acting Head of the Tourism Industry Division at the Korea Tourism Organization, stated, "The Korea Tourism Organization is expanding practical support for promising domestic tourism startups to enter the global market by operating overseas tourism company support centers in major hubs such as Singapore, Tokyo, and Bangkok." He added, "We will continue to strengthen the creation of business opportunities and the network foundation so that domestic tourism startups can remain competitive in the global market."
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