Minister Park Yang-woo Holds Meeting with Travel Industry "Preparing Measures to Restore Tourism Demand"

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Yang-woo is giving opening remarks during a meeting with travel industry officials struggling due to COVID-19 at the Hana Tour building in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 23rd.
[Photo by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] On the 23rd, Park Yang-woo, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, met with travel industry officials who are experiencing severe difficulties due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) to gather opinions on government support measures.

On the same day in the afternoon, Minister Park visited the office of Hana Tour in Jongno-gu, Seoul, to encourage employees and related personnel. Afterwards, he held a meeting with travel agency representatives, including Oh Chang-hee, president of the Korea Association of Travel Agents.

Minister Park explained, "The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has included the travel industry, which has suffered the greatest damage from the COVID-19 crisis, in the special employment support sector. As of April 20, 3,099 travel agencies have applied, and emergency support is being provided, including 100 billion KRW in unsecured special loans from the Tourism Fund and 200 billion KRW in repayment deferrals."

He added, "However, since the situation of the tourism industry is expected to worsen further from May, preparations for this are also necessary. We are currently preparing measures to revitalize the domestic tourism market as a priority to recover travel demand."

The government plans to focus on responding to COVID-19 first and, depending on the situation, will consult with the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters to announce and implement appropriate measures at the right time.

Participants in the meeting requested support such as short-term job assistance for travel industry retirees and those on leave, extension of the special employment support sector period, increased support ratio for large-scale companies, preparation of countermeasures for market changes after overcoming COVID-19, additional acceptance of applications for Tourism Fund repayment deferrals, and support for various discount policies through travel agencies.

Minister Park stated, "We will promptly prepare support measures for the travel industry by additionally reflecting today's opinions in the supplementary support measures currently under review," and added, "We also plan to prepare strategies within the first half of the year to enhance the competitiveness of Korea's travel industry in preparation for the post-COVID-19 era and to respond to changes in the travel market."

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