Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Allocates 300.7 Billion KRW in 2nd Supplementary Budget to Revitalize Culture, Arts, Sports, and Tourism Industries

Hwang Hee, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 1st that it has allocated an additional supplementary budget of 300.7 billion KRW this year to overcome the damage caused by COVID-19 and to ensure a rapid economic recovery.

This supplementary budget includes 150.7 billion KRW worth of project funds aimed at job creation support for the performance, arts, tourism, and sports industries, which were severely affected by COVID-19, as well as movie and professional sports viewing consumption discount coupons. It also contains a fund amendment plan to secure 150 billion KRW in deposits for the Public Fund Management Fund to expand the resources of the Tourism Promotion and Development Fund.

To stimulate the contracted artistic creative activities, the Ministry will increase investment in the Artist Creative Preparation Fund (27.2 billion KRW), support performance arts personnel (11.5 billion KRW), expand the Korea Performing Arts Festival, and support small-scale popular music performances to accelerate the revitalization of the stagnant performance industry. Additionally, through projects such as hiring specialized personnel and supporting shared spaces in the travel industry (15.1 billion KRW), supporting quarantine at tourist sites (25.2 billion KRW), and employment support for private sports facilities (13.4 billion KRW), the Ministry plans to help the tourism and sports industries, which are gradually regaining vitality, recover quickly.

The Ministry also plans to allocate additional consumption discount coupons in the second half of the year to stimulate domestic demand and restore daily life, including movie viewing (10 billion KRW for 1.67 million people), private sports facility use (12.4 billion KRW for 400,000 people), professional sports game viewing (7.7 billion KRW for 1 million people), and domestic tourism transportation discounts (4.2 billion KRW for 145,000 people). Furthermore, it will issue additional integrated cultural vouchers (14.1 billion KRW for 200,000 people) to expand cultural and leisure consumption support for low-income groups.

These measures are intended to help inject accumulated household consumption capacity into the cultural arts, sports, and tourism sectors, which were severely affected by COVID-19. The Ministry will implement these measures gradually, taking into full account vaccination rates and quarantine conditions. The existing consumption discount coupons (approximately 6.76 million tickets), whose issuance and use were temporarily suspended, will also be promptly executed together with new coupons, considering the conditions for resumption, to contribute to economic revitalization.

Moreover, the Ministry has secured 150 billion KRW in deposits for the Public Fund Management Fund to expand the resources of the tourism fund. The tourism fund, which serves as the foundation for various support projects such as loans and employment support for tourism businesses, has faced difficulties in financing due to a sharp decline in revenue from departure fees and increased expenditures for tourism industry recovery. With the additional 150 billion KRW secured through this supplementary budget, the Ministry plans to support the tourism industry to ensure no setbacks in the recovery of the tourism ecosystem based on quarantine safety and to further solidify related projects such as the implementation of travel safety zones (Travel Bubble).

The government's overall supplementary budget plan also includes a 3 trillion KRW scale support project for small business owners, such as the Hope Recovery Fund project. This small business support project is also expected to greatly aid the recovery of the culture, sports, and tourism sectors, which have many small business owners and small enterprises and suffered significant sales declines due to COVID-19.

A Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official stated, "With this second supplementary budget plan, we have prepared projects to support the cultural, arts, sports, and tourism industries in overcoming COVID-19 damage, as well as projects to revitalize the economy, including expanding cultural leisure consumption. We will do our best to contribute to a swift and complete economic recovery." He added, "In particular, projects to promote domestic demand, such as consumption discount coupons, will be implemented safely, considering vaccination rates and quarantine conditions."

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