Searching for Cities with Beautiful Nightscapes... Night Tourism Specialized City Contest

[Asia Economy Reporter Seomideum] The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, together with the Korea Tourism Organization, is calling for applications for the ‘2023 Night Tourism Specialized Cities.’ The call is open to metropolitan and basic local governments and will be held from January 2 to February 8 next year.

The ‘Night Tourism Specialized City Development Project’ aims to establish representative stay-type tourist cities to revitalize the local economy. In 2022, Incheon Metropolitan City (International Landmark Type) and Tongyeong City (Growth Support Type) were selected as the first night tourism specialized cities.

This year, based on the tourism infrastructure, scale, and characteristics of local governments, two cities will be selected as International Landmark Type (700 million KRW each) and three cities as Growth Support Type (300 million KRW each), totaling five cities to receive support.

The ‘International Landmark Type’ targets special cities, metropolitan cities, special self-governing cities, and special cities with special status (excluding Jeju) or basic local governments (city level) that meet certain conditions and have the potential to grow into globally attractive night tourism cities. The ‘Growth Support Type’ targets all basic local governments (cities and counties) with potential and differentiated night tourism content to attract domestic tourists and drive regional growth.

The selected cities will promote strengthening night tourism content, expanding infrastructure, and building night tourism brands through systematic promotion and marketing.

Details and schedules of the call for applications can be found on January 2 next year in the ‘2023 Night Tourism Specialized City Application Guide’ on the websites of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization. After document and on-site evaluations, the Ministry and the Tourism Organization plan to select five final project cities by the end of February next year.

Additionally, to enhance understanding of this call for applications, briefing sessions will be held for interested local governments and related organizations such as Regional Tourism Organizations (RTOs). The briefing sessions, conducted by prior registration, will introduce the first selected cities and advanced overseas cases and share opinions on night tourism.

Meanwhile, according to the ‘2022 Night Tourism Survey’ conducted by the Korea Tourism Organization, night tourism generated an economic ripple effect including approximately 1.3592 trillion KRW in annual production inducement effect, about 530.9 billion KRW in added value inducement effect, approximately 15,835 jobs created, and about 9,093 employment inducement effects.

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