Korea turns to Global South for answers on saving regional tourism

Foreign tourists walk at Deoksu Palace in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

As foreign tourists crowd major cities and rural regions struggle to attract visitors, tourism officials from across the developing world gathered in Korea Thursday to search for a solution that has eluded governments worldwide: how to spread tourism wealth beyond capital cities.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said it hosted the 2026 KOPIST High-Level Tourism Policy Forum in Sejong under the theme of “strategic approaches to revitalizing regional tourism.”

The event brought together senior tourism officials from 10 countries, including Indonesia, Ghana, Mongolia, Peru and Egypt, to discuss policies aimed at expanding tourism benefits across entire countries rather than concentrating them in major urban centers.

KOPIST, short for the Korea Partnership Initiative on Sustainable Tourism, is the ministry’s flagship official development assistance program focused on tourism cooperation with developing countries.

Launched in 2014, the initiative has served as a platform for sharing Korea’s tourism development policies with partner nations.

Among the keynote speakers was Julius Arnegger, a professor at Germany’s West Coast University of Applied Sciences, who presented what organizers described as a “3C” strategy for strengthening regional tourism competitiveness: clarity, collaboration and consistency.

The forum also highlighted international case studies built around data-driven tourism policies and regional revitalization.

Margarida Abreu Novais, a professor at Griffith University in Australia, discussed tourism data strategies used in Australia, the European Union, New Zealand and Spain.

Nakahara Kohei, chairman of the Kutchan Tourism Association in Japan’s Hokkaido region, shared Niseko’s experience developing year-round tourism through local resident participation.

Korean speakers focused on domestic revitalization projects, including Incheon’s Open Port Street redevelopment and the use of artificial intelligence for crowd analysis and multilingual tourist guidance.

Kang Jung-won, director general for tourism policy at the ministry, said growing global interest in K-culture had created new opportunities for international tourism cooperation.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.