South Korea is aligning its tourism business with the nation’s broader AI and digital transformation agenda. By increasing its nationwide tourism startup program to incorporate deep tech and immersive content material ventures, the federal government goals to show conventional tourism into a sensible, innovation-driven export sector able to competing on a world scale.
MCST and KTO Launch the seventeenth Tourism Enterprise Enterprise Contest
The Ministry of Tradition, Sports activities and Tourism (MCST), along with the Korea Tourism Group (KTO), has opened purposes for the seventeenth Tourism Enterprise Enterprise Contest, operating from February 3 to March 4, 2026.
This yr’s version focuses on discovering AI-powered and digital innovation tourism startups able to redefining how vacationers expertise Korea. A complete of 100 firms shall be chosen throughout three development levels:
- Preliminary Tourism Ventures: 20 pre-founders making ready for launch
- Early Tourism Ventures: 40 firms based inside the previous three years
- Progress Tourism Ventures: 40 firms with three to seven years of operations
Every chosen participant will obtain as much as 100 million KRW (about USD 75,000) in commercialization funding by November 2026, together with administration consulting, coaching, and international funding assist.
Purposes are open by way of the Korea Tourism Trade Portal (Touraz.kr).
Tourism Startup Program Context: From Conventional Tourism to Good Innovation
This yr’s competitors indicators a serious coverage pivot. Tourism innovation is now handled as a core nationwide business, positioned alongside Korea’s broader AI and digital transformation efforts.
Startups can apply below one of many 4 focus classes:
- Tourism Expertise Companies
- Immersive Tourism Content material
- Tourism Infrastructure
- Tourism Deep-Tech Options
By connecting tourism entrepreneurship with deep tech capabilities, the federal government seeks to ascertain a brand new mannequin of “sensible tourism” — one which merges inventive content material, knowledge analytics, and AI techniques to modernize how locations function and the way vacationers interact.
The initiative additionally displays classes from current years: ventures supported below earlier applications achieved tangible outcomes, together with awards on the CES international tech honest and profitable funding rounds, confirming the rising worldwide competitiveness of “Ok-Tourism” expertise.
Coverage Imaginative and prescient and Market Relevance
An official from the Ministry of Tradition, Sports activities and Tourism defined that AI and digital expertise are quickly restructuring the tourism sector, including:
“Tourism ventures are on the coronary heart of this alteration. We’re strengthening full-cycle assist so these firms can compete globally whereas driving the digital and worth transformation of Korea’s tourism business.”
The Korea Tourism Group emphasised that tourism innovation is now tied on to nationwide competitiveness, highlighting this system’s success in producing globally acknowledged startups that mix cultural creativity with rising applied sciences.
Korea’s “Good Tourism” as Exportable Innovation
The expanded enterprise initiative positions tourism as each an financial development engine and a expertise testbed. By integrating AI, immersive content material, and deep tech, this system successfully turns the tourism sector right into a sandbox for digital experimentation, much like what fintech and mobility ecosystems achieved in earlier coverage cycles.
For Korea’s startup ecosystem, this implies a brand new avenue of government-backed assist past manufacturing and ICT. Tourism, historically seen as a service-heavy business, is now being reframed as a data-rich, innovation-intensive area that may foster cross-sector partnerships — significantly in AI, content material manufacturing, spatial computing, and sensible infrastructure.
For international buyers, the competition indicators the place Korea’s innovation coverage is heading subsequent: linking cultural export industries with superior applied sciences to strengthen international affect in experience-based economies.
Korea’s Tourism Transformation Enters Its Subsequent Section
The Tourism Enterprise Enterprise Contest is shifting past a distinct segment accelerator, turning right into a core a part of Korea’s expertise and export technique. By remodeling tourism right into a proving floor for AI, immersive media, and deep tech startups, the federal government is successfully redefining the boundaries between tradition, innovation, and financial coverage.
If executed successfully, the 2026 program might assist Korea place itself not solely as a journey vacation spot but additionally as a international chief in sensible tourism innovation — the place each journey turns into a data-driven expertise.
Key Takeaway on Korea’s Tourism Startup Program
- Organizer: Ministry of Tradition, Sports activities and Tourism (MCST) and Korea Tourism Group (KTO).
- Program: seventeenth Tourism Enterprise Enterprise Contest (Feb 3–Mar 4, 2026).
- Choice: 100 startups throughout pre-founders, early-stage, and development classes.
- Funding: As much as 100 million KRW per firm by November 2026.
- Focus Sectors: AI, deep tech, immersive content material, infrastructure-based tourism innovation.
- Help: Coaching, consulting, and international funding linkage.
- End result Aim: Construct a globally aggressive sensible tourism ecosystem pushed by expertise.
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