South Korea to invest 410 billion won in regional airport tourism zones

The South Korean government plans to invest approximately 410 billion won in next year's budget to promote five major regional tourism zones centered around local airports. This initiative aims to shift the influx of foreign tourists away from the Seoul metropolitan area and toward regional hubs, with a target of reaching 5 million regional arrivals by 2029.

The five designated tourism zones include the Gimhae, Daegu, Cheongju, Yangyang, and Muan airport regions. The funding, which spans 27 projects across eight ministries, will support infrastructure such as airport and cruise port arrivals, improvements in transportation, accommodation, and payment convenience, and the development of specialized tourism content.

Additionally, the government will invest 3 billion won in AI-driven projects to assist foreign tourists with multilingual translation and transportation challenges. Other economic measures include fostering the K-beauty industry and expanding the number of stores offering standard QR codes for foreign payments to 80,000 next year.