Election of Kim Gyeong as Chair of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee of Seoul Metropolitan Council

Chairman Kim Kyung: "We will carefully examine Seoul's culture, sports, and tourism policies, which are the foundation of citizens' happiness and healthy lives and emerging as future core sectors such as K-content and K-tourism."

The Seoul Metropolitan Council elected Assemblyman Kim Gyeong (Democratic Party, Gangseo 1) as the Chairperson of the Culture, Sports, and Tourism Committee for the second half of the 11th Seoul Metropolitan Council during the 325th extraordinary session held on July 29.

Chairperson Kim Gyeong, a graduate of Yonsei University and former professor at Hanyang Women's University (Ph.D. in Education), is a re-elected member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council. During the 10th Seoul Metropolitan Council, he served as Chairperson of the Budget Policy Research Committee and Vice Chairperson of the Education Committee. In the 11th Council, he has been active in the Steering Committee and the Health and Welfare Committee.

Upon being elected as Chairperson of the Culture, Sports, and Tourism Committee, Kim Gyeong stated, “The fields of culture, sports, and tourism are investment areas for Seoul citizens that will surely propel Seoul into a future advanced city.” He also expressed regret that “the budget for culture, sports, and tourism, which should be responsible for Seoul’s future, accounts for less than 2% of the entire Seoul city budget.” At the same time, he revealed his ambition by saying, “I will correct budgetary practices to ensure that such insufficient budgets are not filled with exhibition-style spending or administratively convenient allocations.”

He also emphasized the need to reestablish policy directions in these fields. Kim said, “In the areas of culture and sports, it is essential to examine whether policies are being implemented from the perspective of Cultural Democracy.” He insisted, “Seoul’s culture and sports policies should be universal public goods that all citizens can participate in and enjoy.”

He continued, “Ultimately, we will focus on establishing a more detailed support system to ensure that no social groups are excluded from cultural enjoyment and sports activities, and on discovering content tailored to each life cycle,” outlining specific plans.

Chairperson Kim also shared his views on improving tourism policies. “As mentioned earlier, Seoul’s current tourism policy tends to be fixated on events, hoping only for short-lived effects,” he said. He expressed his conviction that “since tourism must be approached as an industrial system, a bottom-up policy that solidly strengthens the foundation of small and medium-sized enterprises is necessary.”

Furthermore, he pledged, “I will do my best to improve the budget structure that is exhibition-style and administratively convenient, and to discover practical policies that can drive the 3·3·7·7 policy (30 million tourists, spending over 3 million won, staying more than 7 days, and over 70% revisit rate).”

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