Jeonghee Kang, Jeonnam Provincial Assembly Member, Proposes Nation's First 'Resident-Led Tourism Business Support Ordinance'

Jeonnam Province Residents Leading Tourism Projects to Revitalize and Establish a Sustainable Tourism Hub

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Chunsu] On the 21st, it was announced that the "Jeollanam-do Resident-led Tourism Business Promotion and Support Ordinance," which was first proposed nationwide by Jeollanam-do Assembly member Kang Jeonghee to supplement the government's Tour Dure project and aims to foster and support resident-led tourism businesses at the regional level, will be reviewed by the standing committee on the 23rd.

Since 2013, the government has been supporting resident-led tourism business operators to become successful entrepreneurs and achieve independence and growth by focusing on local residents as the core, managing tourism businesses such as lodging, experiential travel, and souvenir sales targeting local tourists.

The Tour Dure project, which started as a pilot in five regions, has expanded as of January 2019 to 47 regions nationwide with 190 resident businesses and 1,369 people, including activities such as "support for Tour Dure PD activities," "discovery of resident businesses," and "support for startup and management improvement."

In terms of participation rate by local governments nationwide, Jeollanam-do (Gokseong-gun, Yeosu-si, Damyang-gun, Naju-si, Gangjin-gun, Boseong-gun) has the highest with 40 businesses (22.35%) and 264 people (20.53%).

Since 2018, Jeollanam-do has been promoting a youth tourism planner training project as its own initiative, discovering and supporting 21 resident businesses, and was selected for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Tour Dure regional cooperation public contest project in 2019, promoting the project with 1 billion KRW (500 million KRW national funds, 500 million KRW provincial funds) until 2021.

However, despite the achievements of the government-led Tour Dure project, limitations in operation have emerged due to the absence of intermediary support organizations such as metropolitan governments, highlighting the need for institutional supplements.

Assembly member Kang Jeonghee explained, "Projects operated only by the central government and central public institutions lack sufficient consideration of regional characteristics and levels, and issues such as insufficient expertise of resident businesses and the nature of the project requiring 2 to 3 years to show results have been pointed out regarding continuous fostering."

She added, "Continuous management of regions where the government's Tour Dure industry has ended and enabling resident communities to voluntarily promote resident business startups and management should be pursued independently by Jeollanam-do through resident-led tourism projects."

She also stated, "Jeollanam-do, which possesses natural tourism resources such as 1,044 km² of tidal flats (42.0% nationwide), 6,743 km of coastline (45.0% nationwide), 2,165 islands (64.5% nationwide), and recreational forests, needs to establish legal and institutional support measures so that resident communities can become the center and develop into a sustainable future industry, which led to the representative proposal of this ordinance."

The main contents of the ordinance include ▲ fostering professional personnel and innovation leaders through specialized education ▲ strengthening support for startup of regionally specialized resident businesses ▲ complementing the government's Tour Dure project by establishing a step-by-step mentoring support system to strengthen the incubating system and including management and support at the regional level.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.