Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Selects 6 Additional 'Regional Tourism Enterprise Support Centers'

Lobby view of a tourism business support center in the Gyeongnam region.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 10th that it will select and operate six additional 'Regional Tourism Enterprise Support Centers' this year.

The Regional Tourism Enterprise Support Centers are local hub spaces that comprehensively provide education, counseling (consulting), promotion and marketing, and support for office space to discover early-stage tourism startups based in the region and systematically nurture regional tourism enterprises. Starting with the 'Busan Tourism Enterprise Support Center' in 2019, three more centers (Incheon, Daejeon-Sejong, Gyeongnam) were added in 2020, operating a total of four centers. So far, they have discovered over 250 early-stage tourism startups and supported the incubation of more than 350 companies, creating 1,141 jobs.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to promote the revitalization of regional tourism, which has been depressed due to COVID-19, and create youth jobs by calling for applications for six centers mainly in regions (metropolitan local governments) where support centers have not yet been established. Newly selected centers will receive 1 billion KRW in national funding per center in the first year of the project (with a 50% local government contribution for facility expansion and operating expenses). Subsequently, to secure a sustainable self-reliant foundation, operating expenses of 900 million to 1.1 billion KRW will be supported annually based on performance evaluations.

Local governments wishing to apply can download the application forms from the official website by February 25, fill them out, and submit them electronically. The final sites will be selected by the end of March through a three-stage process: first document screening, second presentation screening, and third on-site inspection, conducted by a selection committee composed of about 10 internal and external experts.

A Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official stated, "With the expansion of these six centers, we plan to develop the support centers not only as places for startup and job support but also as policy hubs for the regional tourism industry by providing related policy information such as loans and research and development (R&D)."

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