Breathing New Life into Tourism Startups Affected by COVID-19 Downturn

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization announced on the 3rd that they will hold the "12th Tourism Venture Business Contest" for startup companies and prospective entrepreneurs with creative business ideas.

The Tourism Venture Business Contest is conducted to discover innovative and new business ideas in the tourism sector and to support startup activation by providing various support programs such as commercialization funds, education and consulting, and market development. Especially this year, considering the COVID-19 situation, the number of selected companies has been expanded from 119 last year to 140 this year. In addition, a total project budget of 9.7 billion KRW will be invested, including an average of 46 million KRW in commercialization funds per company.

The contest is open to prospective entrepreneurs and those who have started a business within 7 years. ▲Prospective (re)entrepreneurs planning creative tourism-related startup items can apply to the ‘Pre-Tourism Venture Category (25 teams)’, ▲Early-stage entrepreneurs within 3 years of (re)startup can apply to the ‘Early Tourism Venture Category (75 teams)’, and ▲Entrepreneurs who have been in business for more than 3 years but within 7 years can apply to the ‘Growth Tourism Venture Category (40 teams)’.

Additionally, companies located in regions other than Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon receive 3 extra points in the document screening, and young entrepreneurs (under 39 years old) receive 1 extra point. If the business utilizes data, 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), convergence tourism, or is a non-face-to-face tourism business, 1 extra point is awarded. If all three conditions are met, a maximum of 5 extra points can be received.

To participate, applicants must submit documents online through the official website from the 3rd until 2 PM on March 9th. The final winners will be announced in May after the first document screening and the second presentation screening. However, the Growth Tourism Venture Category will be selected after an additional third on-site evaluation.

The 140 companies finally selected will carry out a contract project for about seven months until November this year, receiving commercialization funds ranging from 30 million to 90 million KRW (average 46 million KRW) per company. In addition, they will receive various supports reflecting company needs, such as customized consulting, tourism-specialized education, promotion and market development support, and investment attraction support. Especially this year, focusing on adapting to the travel market environment shifted online due to COVID-19 and overcoming the crisis, digital capability enhancement education, data-based marketing, customized research and testing support will actively support the digital transformation of tourism venture companies. Furthermore, cooperation between traditional tourism industries and other sectors will be strengthened to create a win-win platform and spread representative success cases of tourism venture companies.

Ahn Deoksu, Director of the Tourism Enterprise Support Office at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, “At the government level, we will actively promote support measures reflecting company needs to empower startup companies,” and added, “We will strive to revitalize the tourism industry, which has been stagnated due to COVID-19, by actively supporting tourism venture companies competing with creative ideas.”

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