Monday, August 31, 2020
Government officials have decided to introduce a set of crisis strategy that would better protect businesses from impacts of future crisis after dealing with US$5 billion in tourism losses for South Korea for the first seven months of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, international arrivals to South Korea came down to 77.1% between January-July as compared to last year.
At present, the government is planning to use the tourism downtime to examine its language guides, maps and transportation system to improve travellers’ experience in the future, as well as utilise big data to promote smart tourism and establish online tourism. Technology already plays a key role within the private section. Popular accommodation reservation platform Yanolja has already leveraged technology to create a safer and cheaper traveling environment for the post-pandemic world.
Choi Bo-geun, Director of Tourism Policy from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said in a recent press statement that effective policies for the future would be drawn up after analysing the effectiveness of some the country’s current support measures. He mentioned that the government should be able to systematically apply such policies in the event of future crises.
The government is presently shouldering up to 90% wages for tourism companies, up from an initial 75% funding. According to reports, Artificial Intelligence is being incorporated into hotel solution enabling allowing guests to use their smartphones as a room key, a remote control and to access room services and restaurant reservations ultimately enhancing safety in the process.
Tags: Coronavirus, Covid-19, korea, korea tourism, south korea
