Korea Tourism Organization Recruiting Companies for Global Challenge...Up to 200 Million Won in Support

Recruiting 30 Companies Until February 5

The Korea Tourism Organization announced on January 20 that it will be recruiting 30 tourism companies to participate in the '2026 Tourism Global Challenge Program' until February 5.

The Tourism Global Challenge is a program designed to discover domestic promising companies with innovative technologies and services in the tourism sector and nurture them into global businesses. The 30 companies selected as finalists will receive differentiated funding for overseas business expansion, ranging from at least 100 million won to up to 200 million won, depending on the evaluation results. In addition, together with specialized accelerators for overseas expansion support, CNT Tech and Y&ARCHER, the selected companies will be provided with customized programs such as business type diagnosis, investment attraction capability enhancement, local market research and market fit validation, participation in overseas exhibitions, and business matching. Through the dedicated accelerators, at least one company will receive direct investment or investment linkage support.

Eligibility requirements include: annual sales of at least 500 million won in one of the past three years; annual exports of at least 100,000 US dollars in one of the past three years; at least 10 full-time employees; at least 1 billion won in investment attracted in the past three years; winning an internationally recognized competition in the past three years; or having contracts or proof-of-concept results with overseas clients in the past three years. Tourism SMEs that meet at least one of these requirements are eligible to apply. Companies that have established overseas subsidiaries or have overseas business records will receive additional points in the document evaluation.

Companies wishing to participate should select one of the two dedicated accelerators, taking into account their target country and the specialized program, and apply accordingly.

The Korea Tourism Organization plans to select the final companies through a first-round document screening and a second-round presentation evaluation.

Moon Suyeon, Head of the Tourism Enterprise Development Team at the Korea Tourism Organization, stated, "Since 2020, the Tourism Global Challenge Program has supported the overseas expansion of a total of 147 tourism companies. This year, we will expand customized support by dividing companies into investment-oriented and market-entry-oriented groups through competency assessments, and strengthen overseas proof-of-concept projects between global companies and tourism startups to achieve tangible results."

Meanwhile, online briefings that can be attended by pre-registration will be held at 3 p.m. on the 23rd (CNT Tech) and the 26th (Y&ARCHER). For more details, please visit the Korea Tourism Industry Portal, TourRaj.