Tourism Organization Accelerates Digital Transformation in Travel Industry... 'Up to 50 Million KRW Support'

Package Support Including Project Funding, Professional Consulting, and Related Education

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 4th that it will promote the 'Digital Transformation Support Project for the Travel Industry' in collaboration with the Korea Tourism Organization. Photo by Korea Tourism Organization

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 4th that it will promote the 'Travel Industry Digital Transformation Support Project' in collaboration with the Korea Tourism Organization.

This project was launched last year as a pilot program to help small and medium-sized travel agencies flexibly respond to future digital environment changes and build self-sustainability. It will be officially implemented this year, with the application period running from the 18th to the 22nd.

Eligible applicants are small and medium-sized enterprises or individual businesses registered under the Tourism Promotion Act for travel agencies (comprehensive travel agencies, domestic and international travel agencies, domestic travel agencies). Applicants must have been established for more than one year as of the announcement date, and a total of 140 travel agencies will be selected.

The support types are divided into 'DX Introduction' (128 companies) and 'DX Follow-up Support' (12 companies) based on the level of digital technology application. DX Introduction targets companies that benefited last year and new applicants this year.

Based on the company's digital capabilities and project execution plans, the DX Introduction category is further divided into 'Introductory Type' (90 companies) and 'Utilization Type' (38 companies). Among the 128 companies, those with high scores in the document evaluation will be selected as Utilization Type through a presentation evaluation.

The newly established DX Follow-up Support this year is an 'Advanced Type' support for companies that benefited last year. Twelve companies will be selected through document and presentation evaluations.

The maximum support amounts by type are 20 million KRW for Introductory Type, 35 million KRW for Utilization Type, and 50 million KRW for Advanced Type.

Selected companies will carry out their projects for about five months until the end of the year. Depending on each company's project and digital transformation goals, they can receive group coaching and consulting from experts, as well as digital capability enhancement training programs.

Additionally, the Korea Tourism Organization is recruiting service providers to carry out digital transformation projects for travel agencies. Eligible companies are those capable of providing services such as website and mobile app development, customer relationship management (CRM) system construction and advancement, immersive tourism content planning and development, payment convenience systems like mobile wallets, online marketing, and other services for building digital management environments and developing digital products for small and medium travel agencies. The application period is from the 18th to the 22nd.

Lee Gayoung, head of the Tourism Industry Strategy Team at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, "We established the 'Advanced Type' program to continuously support the digital transformation efforts of existing participating companies and create successful cases. We hope many travel companies that wish to improve work efficiency and create new business models through digital transformation will apply."

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