Culture ministry launches drive to shift foreign tourists to regions

The culture ministry said Thursday it has launched a survey to select five regional tourism zones aimed at dispersing foreign visitors away from the capital area, where more than 80 percent of international tourists currently concentrate.

Officials stated that relying solely on the metropolitan region limits growth as the country targets 30 million annual foreign arrivals. The ministry plans to designate the new zones by the end of this year following a review of proposals from local governments.

Selected areas will receive financial aid, regulatory exemptions and artificial intelligence pilot projects from 2027 through 2030. The strategy connects gateway cities with local international airports to nearby municipalities to create seamless travel routes.

Five airports serve as anchors: Gimhae in Busan, Daegu, Cheongju in North Chungcheong Province, Muan in South Jeolla Province and Yangyang in Gangwon Province. The ministry intends to solve bottlenecks across the visitor journey, ranging from entry and transportation to accommodation and experiences.

To facilitate the selection, the ministry is conducting a demand survey of metropolitan local governments from July 28 to August 14. An explanatory meeting for local officials was held July 30 at the Government Complex Sejong to outline project details.

A committee of private experts will analyze submitted proposals alongside data on traveler itineraries to finalize the five optimal zones, identifying routes that leverage local strengths to encourage longer stays and higher spending outside the capital.

Kang Jeong-won, the ministry's director general for tourism policy, said, "Opening the era of 30 million foreign tourists and moving toward 40 million is impossible with a structure centered on the metropolitan area. We need world-class regional 'tourism rights' comparable to the capital so the benefits of foreign tourism can spread across the entire country."

President Lee Jae-myung warned that satisfying the current reality where 80 percent of foreign tourists concentrate in Seoul would inevitably lead to a ceiling on the growth of the tourism industry. He called for innovations ensuring economic opportunities reach local merchants and small businesses across the country.