The Korea Tourism Organization said on the 23rd that it is holding a pop-up store called "Seongsu Rest Stop" and an investment networking event called the "Tourism Venture Cheonggyecheon Club" in Seoul's Seongsu-dong on the 23rd and 24th, with 27 tourism startups taking part.
The Seongsu Rest Stop is a pop-up where visitors can try products and services from tourism startups firsthand, held at The Garbe Seongsu. Visitors can experience a range of hands-on content, including a three-dimensional artificial intelligence photo booth, K-pop dance classes, AI-based beauty and medical consultations, and tastings of traditional Korean liquor. Online promotional events and live commerce sessions linked to private platforms such as MyRealTrip will also run through the 13th of next month.
The Tourism Venture Cheonggyecheon Club is an investment event drawing about 60 participants, including tourism startups, investment firms that manage the tourism account of the government's fund of funds, and officials from large and mid-sized companies. The program features investor relations pitching sessions in which companies present their business models to investors, reverse pitching in which investors lay out the technologies and partnership needs they are looking for, and one-on-one consultations.
On the 24th, Song In-hyuk, CEO of Uniquegood Company, which operates the experiential content space Real World Seongsu, will give a lecture on AI transformation. Hands-on training will also be offered in which tourism startups build their own AI agents.
"This event will help tourism startups with strong ideas broaden their contact with the public while also giving them a chance to sharpen their competitiveness in the market and scale up," said Kim Kwan-mi, head of the Korea Tourism Organization's tourism business support division. "We will continue to provide support on multiple fronts so that tourism startups can establish themselves as leading players in a sustainable tourism industry."