Culture and transport ministries join forces to spread tourists beyond Seoul

South Korea's culture ministry and transport ministry said Monday they would widen the air corridors into regional airports and improve payments, rail and bus services for foreign tourists, in a joint push to spread record visitor numbers beyond Seoul.

The two ministries convened the third meeting of their tourism-transport policy council at the government complex in Sejong, chaired jointly at director-general level and attended by about eight officials who design and carry out tourism and transport policy. The council was set up in May to break down barriers between the ministries and quickly clear obstacles foreign visitors meet on arrival and while moving around the country.

At Monday's meeting the two sides discussed measures to revitalize regional airports, expand the use of open-loop payment systems that accept a visitor's existing card or phone, make trains, buses and taxis easier for foreign tourists to use, upgrade map services and build a brand for extended-stay tourism.

"Spreading the results of record visitor numbers to the regions is the task for an era of 30 million foreign arrivals," said Kang Jung-won, head of the culture ministry's tourism policy office. "The organic combination of the culture ministry's ability to find attractive content and market it with the transport ministry's solid aviation and transport base is more important than anything."

Park Jae-soon, head of the transport ministry's transport and logistics office, said the government would expand operating slots at regional airports and give priority to flights carrying foreign visitors, so that more of them can enter through airports outside the capital region. Rail, bus and taxi services and the payment environment would also be improved, he said.

The two ministries have already run regional tourism forums tied to local airports this year, in Daegu in April, Busan in May and Yangyang in September, and said they would keep tracking the tasks identified there. They plan to hold a comprehensive debate at the National Assembly in December to gather views from the public and experts, then reflect them in a joint work plan for 2027.