Seoul City Finalizes 20 '2022 Excellent Seoul Stay' Locations... Up to 2 Million KRW Support Provided

Support for Creating Excellent Accommodation Environments That Domestic and International Tourists Can Choose Without Hesitation

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Tourism Foundation announced on the 7th that they conducted the ‘2022 Excellent Seoul Stay’ contest for about three weeks starting June 17 to support capacity building in the alternative accommodation industry, and after the first document evaluation and the second on-site evaluation, they finally selected 20 locations.

Excellent Seoul Stay is a project launched in 2021 to promote differentiation from other companies, strengthen the capabilities of the alternative accommodation industry, and enhance the satisfaction of tourists using accommodations. It targets Seoul Stay registered accommodations and selects and supports about 20 excellent accommodations annually through a contest and strict evaluation criteria.

This year, a public recruitment was conducted targeting foreign tourist city guesthouses and Hanok experience businesses registered with Seoul Stay, resulting in about 70 applications and a competition rate exceeding 3 to 1. After the first document evaluation and the second on-site evaluation, 20 locations were finally selected. Each of the 20 selected locations will receive up to 2 million KRW in project funds, which can only be used for accommodation operation-related items such as purchasing operational supplies, interior improvements, safety facility maintenance, and promotional marketing.

In addition to the maximum 2 million KRW project fund support this year, practical promotional marketing benefits were provided to strengthen support. A newly developed exclusive emblem for Excellent Seoul Stay is provided so that each accommodation can actively utilize it for online and offline promotion. Other support includes ?providing a plaque of selection ?supporting content production for social networking services (SNS) in collaboration with travel influencers ?offering opportunities for promotion and participation in events linked with other city and foundation projects, among various other supports.

Meanwhile, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Tourism Foundation plan to strengthen communication with the industry by holding an online briefing session for the operators of the finally selected accommodations to provide detailed information about the support, answer questions, and collect opinions related to project implementation. This briefing session will be broadcast live on YouTube on the 11th.

Choi Kyung-joo, Director of the Tourism and Sports Bureau of Seoul, said, “Seoul will continue to regularly select Excellent Seoul Stay accommodations every year to support the competitiveness of alternative accommodation businesses and strive to create an environment where domestic and international users can use accommodations with peace of mind.”

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