The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, together with the Korea Tourism Organization, will hold the "2025 Tourism Venture Day" event at 3:00 p.m. on December 23 at The Westin Chosun Seoul.
Tourism Venture Day, which has been held since 2019, is an awards ceremony that recognizes and shares the achievements of tourism venture companies discovered by the Ministry and the Korea Tourism Organization that have produced innovative results. Since 2011, the Ministry and the Korea Tourism Organization have been running a tourism venture support project to discover and nurture tourism venture companies with innovative ideas, having identified more than 1,700 companies to date.
This year, 28 companies will be awarded across eight categories at the Tourism Venture Day event: the Tourism Venture Business Contest (Growth, Early Stage, and Preliminary), BETTERLI (BETTER理), the Tourism Global Challenge Program, Tourism Plus Tech, the Tourism Company Innovation Voucher, and Regional Tourism Enterprise Support Centers. Of these, six companies will receive the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award, and 22 companies will receive the President of Korea Tourism Organization Award. Awardees were selected based on annual sales performance, job creation, and contributions to the tourism industry.
The six companies receiving the Minister's Award are: Next Edition and Mooncademy (Growth Tourism Venture category), Baekgyeong Distillery (Early Stage Tourism Venture category), Healing Paper (Tourism Global Challenge Program category), Lara Station (Tourism Plus Tech category), and JICTour (Innovation Voucher category).
Next Edition has established itself as an industry leader, recording 130 billion won in transaction volume this year, by providing an integrated service through its outdoor activity platform "Campit," which covers everything from camping, glamping, and pension reservations to club activities and commerce. Mooncademy, a platform offering running tour products as well as running lessons and event information, demonstrated global competitiveness by being selected as the official partner travel agency for the Sydney Marathon, one of the world's seven major marathons.
Baekgyeong Distillery is developing new Korean liquors and offering differentiated tourism experiences by combining local specialties and storytelling content based on these products. Healing Paper is accelerating its overseas market expansion by providing multilingual K-beauty and medical information to users, including foreign tourists, through its global medical beauty information platform "Gangnam Unni." Lara Station supports the global expansion of K-content and tourism products through its AI-based open tourism content commerce platform and real-time automatic translation technology, while JICTour is leading digital transformation in the maritime tourism sector by integrating an international maritime passenger real-time reservation system (GDS) with artificial intelligence technology.
The event will be attended by around 200 people, including representatives from tourism venture companies, investment firms, and related organizations. In addition to the awards ceremony, the program will include an introduction to the tourism venture support project, networking sessions between tourism venture companies and investors, and special lectures.
Kim Geunho, Director of Tourism Industry Policy at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, stated, "This year, we expect to attract the largest number of foreign tourists ever, which I believe is a golden opportunity not only for the recovery of the tourism industry but also for Korea to leap forward as a global tourism powerhouse. The Ministry will continue to actively support tourism venture companies so that their innovation continues and the tourism industry can establish itself as a leading national industry."
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