Extension of the Relaxed International Conference Support Recognition Criteria by 6 Months

Last Year’s Scale Increased by 289.5% Compared to the Previous Year "Average Support Amount Also Tripled"

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 3rd that it will extend the application period for the relaxed international conference recognition criteria until June, considering the spread of COVID-19. Due to prolonged COVID-19 restrictions on international travel and gatherings, the "Notice on Types, Scale, and Support Fund Management Procedures for International Conferences" has been revised.

The Ministry had previously amended the "Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Promotion of the International Conference Industry" to allow the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism to temporarily set criteria such as the "period recognized as an international conference" when foreigners find it difficult to attend meetings directly due to the spread of a first-class infectious disease. Based on this, the notice was established and revised to relax the international conference requirements as follows: ▲ hosted by international organizations, institutions, corporations, or associations ▲ held between April 13, 2020, and December 31, 2021 ▲ number of participants 100 or more, including at least 50 foreign participants attending online ▲ conference duration of one day or more. Small-scale or hybrid online-offline international conferences held after April 2020, when entry restrictions were tightened, are also eligible for support.

Last year, 140 international events benefited from this support. The Ministry provided approximately 3.8 billion KRW in funding, a 289.5% increase compared to 980 million KRW (45 events) in 2020. An official stated, "The average support amount also increased about threefold compared to before the COVID-19 outbreak (2015?2019)," and added, "This contributed to reducing damage to the industry."

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