Innovative Companies Leading Tourism Trends Gathered... 'Korea Travel Tech Summit' Held

Tourism Venture Innovative Technology and Global Trend Exchange Event
October 1-2, 2023 Korea Travel Tech Summit Held

"You need to demonstrate that you can continuously generate profits, and before that, you must be able to present core solutions that differentiate you from other companies to attract smooth investment."

The 2023 Korea Travel Tech Summit Talk Show session hosted by Yanolja's CSO Kim Jung-yoon and WiT CEO Yeo Si-hoon.
[Photo by Korea Tourism Organization]

At the ‘2023 Korea Travel Tech Summit’ hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization on the 1st, Kim Jung-yoon, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of Yanolja Cloud, advised, "In the recent environment where the investment market has frozen, a rigorous process of contemplating what the core value of the company is must precede investment attraction."

This event was organized to introduce the latest innovative technologies and trends based on tourism and to support domestic companies’ global expansion and network building. On-site, travel tech companies such as Tidesquare and Singapore’s travel marketing specialized media Web in Travel (WiT) cooperated, with about 250 stakeholders from domestic and international travel agencies, airlines, and tourism venture companies attending, facilitating diverse exchanges and discussions.

On the 1st, a global conference was held under the theme ‘The Future of Travel: Evolution of Travel Tech.’ It examined the latest trends across the travel startup ecosystem and highlighted future prospects. In the ‘Scale-up: Korean Startups on the Growth Path’ session, several tourism startups including Stayfolio, Onda, and Tripstore participated to share insights on innovative technologies, current issues, and to network. Particularly, the plans and future challenges of Korean startups were introduced as a focus.

Jung Ji-ha, CEO of Tripbitoz, observed, "In the Web 1.0 ecosystem, travel agencies monopolized information, resulting in a lack of transparency, whereas in the Web 2.0 era characterized by sharing and openness, users produced content themselves and could interact bidirectionally. In the next-generation Web 3.0 ecosystem, I believe the travel market will serve as a media platform where various industries converge through mutual communication among suppliers and interactions among travelers."

2023 Korea Travel Tech Summit Thailand Tourism Industry Trends Session
[Photo by Korea Tourism Organization]

In the afternoon, sessions such as ‘Lessons from Asian Startup Peers,’ which featured Thai travel tech companies and insights into Thailand’s tourism trends and Korea-Thailand tourism industry relations, and the ‘Startup Showcase,’ which introduced travel technology, trends, and current status while showcasing present and future advanced travel technologies, were held.

On the 2nd, sessions that drew significant attention included ‘Human Revolution,’ which painted a big picture of the travel sector’s human revolution in the era of generative AI and big tech; ‘Trends Leading Asian Online Travel,’ which examined factors influencing online travel in Asia; and ‘Changes in Preferences of Korean Travelers,’ which covered the latest consumer travel trends in the Korean outbound market.

Jung Yong-an, head of the Tourism Enterprise Startup Team at the Korea Tourism Organization, stated, "For domestic tourism startups to grow into unicorn companies, it has become essential to possess competitiveness in the global market beyond the domestic market," adding, "We will continue to spare no support to enable excellent K-tourism startups to actively enter overseas markets."

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