The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister PARK Bo Gyoon, MCST) in collaboration with the Korea Tourism Organization (Acting President SHIN Sang Yong, KTO) opened the Korea Tourism Startup Center in Singapore, the first of its kind in the travel and hospitality industry, on Aug 31 (Wed). The Center is expected to provide strong support for promising and innovative tourism startups in Korea in identifying and pursuing new opportunities.

The Tourism Startup Center in Singapore will serve as a platform offering comprehensive support for tourism startups in terms of local networks, funding, and office space to help them adapt to the local startup ecosystem, while also connecting startup ecosystems across countries.

MCST, working together with KTO, has identified 1,200 promising tourism startups and created over 4,000 jobs since 2011. In particular, it has incubated and accelerated innovative tourism companies by systematically tailoring funding support programs to their growth cycles, such as the Tourism Tech Incubator Program for Startups (TIPS) and Tourism Startup Global Challenge Program.[1]

Amid the rapid transition toward a digital society in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism venture companies are emerging as success cases in embracing and leveraging the core technologies of the 4^th Industrial Revolution such as AI, Big Data, service platforms, AR/VR/XR-based content, and IoTs, thereby taking the lead in quickly responding to the changing landscape in the tourism industry.

Accordingly, MCST opened the Korea Tourism Startup Center, the first of its kind, in Singapore, one of Asia's major financial centers and a nation with which Korea has created a travel safety zone. The Center will serve as a hub to provide support for “leading global tourism companies” to make inroads into overseas markets, in particular the Southeast Asian market, and grow into global tourism companies with competitiveness.

The opening ceremony was held on Aug 31 (Wed) with Korean Ambassador to Singapore,  government official from Singapore, representatives from Korean companies, 12 investment companies, and Korea’s 13 “promising tourism startups” in attendance.[2]

In particular, a range of foreign investment companies joined the ceremony, including Vertex Ventures, a subsidiary of Singapore's sovereign wealth fund; Velocity Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in incubating travel and hospitality startups; and Changi Airport Group – all of which boast access to networks to advance into Southeast Asia. To seek the overseas market advancement opportunities, there were one to one pitching programs with twelve investors.

MCST plans to continuously expand support centers and programs for Korean tourism companies to make inroads into overseas markets, starting from the Korea Tourism Startup Center in Singapore, with a focus on offering professional services for the tourism sector. This endeavor is aimed at helping such companies build overseas partnerships, secure marketing channels through tourism and tour-tech fairs, and attract foreign investment. MCST Director-General for Tourism Industry Policy added “MCST will do its utmost to provide support for Korean tourism startups to access local ecosystems and realize their vision of becoming tomorrow’s global giants.”