Seoul city urges gov't to slash red tape stifling culture and tourism
Performers from Lotte World Adventure put on a vibrant samba show near the Myeongdong Theater intersection in Jung District, central Seoul, July 1, to mark the opening of the theme park's summer festival. Korea Times file
Outdated rules stall international artists and tech innovation, officials warn
Seoul city officials have formally petitioned the central government to dismantle three bureaucratic hurdles that they argue are stalling the capital’s push to become a top-tier global cultural and tourism hub.
The proposal, submitted Thursday by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to the Office for Government Coordination, targets outdated administrative requirements spanning international concert permits, online hotel verification and virtual reality content classification. Municipal leaders argue these rules impose unnecessary delays on local creative industries and undermine tourist trust.
At the center of the push is a long-standing mandate requiring pre-approval from the Korea Media Rating Board for any live show featuring non-Korean performers. Under current law, even a single foreign guest artist on stage subjects the entire event to review, punishable by up to three years in prison or fines reaching 30 million won ($22,077).
While intended to police foreign performers, the rule routinely entangles classical, traditional Korean music and K-pop concerts. Officials pointed out that the review process is largely a formality, with 99 percent of the nearly 2,000 annual applications approved over the past three years. Yet the administrative backlog forces municipal cultural groups to spend up to two weeks securing permits, often requiring binding contracts six months before a performance.
Seoul is urging the government to replace the blanket review system with a tiered reporting framework that exempts low-risk public events and government-backed invitations, while maintaining strict oversight for commercial adult venue performances.
The city is also seeking standardized business registration numbers for hotels and home-shares. Under current rules, local districts across the country format license numbers independently, making it difficult for online booking platforms to automatically verify legitimate properties. The issue has grown urgent ahead of a law taking effect in November, which mandates that platforms screen illegal accommodations before listing them. Seoul proposes a unified nationwide coding system based on industry, region, and year.
Finally, officials asked the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to clarify regulatory boundaries for interactive virtual reality projects. Under present guidelines, virtual reality works featuring branching storylines are frequently categorized as video games, rather than films, because viewers choose their own narrative paths.
The distinction subjects cinematic virtual reality content to heavier gaming regulations and blocks theatrical releases. One prominent Korean virtual reality production, "White Rabbit," screened as a film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 but was legally classified as a game domestically.
"While global demand for live performances and tourism is surging, some of our regulatory frameworks have failed to keep pace with reality," said Cho Wan-seok, Seoul’s director general for regulatory innovation. "We are asking the government to eliminate rules that no longer make sense while preserving their original intent."
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.