Government to hold a contest for "Smart Tourism City" to provide 3.5 billion won in state funds to 6 cities

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, along with the Korea Tourism Organization, will invite metropolitan and basic local governments to participate in the "2022 Smart Tourism City Creation Project" until December 30.

For the year of 2022, the project competition has greatly increased the number of local governments from three to six in the previous year in order to reflect the rising demand and interest of local governments over the past two years and to lead the digital exchange of the tourism industry.

In this contest, the public offering type will be divided into three categories: transportation-linked type (local governments with high-speed railways, regional airports, etc.), tourist attraction type (local governments nationwide), and small-sized type (local governments with less than 150,000 population) so that the project can be carried out in accordance with local characteristics such as tourism resources held by the region. Local governments participating in the contest can choose one of these types.

Unlike last year, the subject of the contest eased the requirement to form a coalition when applying for a project, and when the local government first applied and was selected as a candidate site, the consortium was then changed to a formulation method.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Tourism Organization plans to select twice the number of candidates by type through document screening.

The selected candidate local governments will have to form a coalition with the private sector with the support of 50 million won in state funds and establish detailed business plans to receive 3.5 billion won in state funds (required to respond 1:1 to local expenses) if the final six are selected in March next year.

On the other hand, the 'Smart Tourism City Development Project' is a policy project that continuously improves local tourism contents and infrastructure by analyzing tourist-type information that enhances travel convenience and satisfaction by intensively providing various tourism services that incorporate information and communication technology into tourist areas that many tourists visit.

The 'Smart Tourism City Development Project' was selected as a pilot project site in 2020 and launched the opening port of Jung-gu, Incheon Metropolitan City as the first smart tourism city in Korea in July this year. In 2021, three new cities were designated - Gyeonggi Suwon, Daegu Suseong-gu, and Jeonnam Yeosu.

Local governments wishing to apply to this contest can submit their business plans to the Smart Tourism Business Team of the Tourism Organization. Details of the contest and application form can be found on the website of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the "Smart Tourism City Guidelines" can also be found on the website of the smart tourism city business.

“We have expanded the scale of our project in 2022 in response to the need for digital conversion of tourism accelerated by COVID-19 and the demand of local governments for smart tourism. We will revitalize local tourism business and establish an advanced foothold for the future tourism industry through the smart tourism city development project in which the public sector participates together,” said the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Reported by Smart City Today