Seocheon and Yeongam Among 10 Local Municipalities Chosen as DMOs — Support to Run Up to Five Years
On March 10, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization announced two new local destination management organizations (DMOs): the Seocheon Cultural Tourism Foundation and the Yeongam Cultural Tourism Foundation.
The Korea Tourism Organization said a DMO is a governance body where residents, industry stakeholders and local governments form a council to lead sustainable tourism development.
The DMO development program provides funding for newly selected organizations for two years. To receive support in a third year, they must win a re-competition. This year’s newly chosen sites are the Seocheon Cultural Tourism Foundation and the Yeongam Cultural Tourism Foundation.
Two groups qualified for third-year support: the Gimje Rural Vitality Center (a social cooperative) and the Yeongdeok Cultural Tourism Foundation. With six DMOs whose support was extended, that brings the total to 10 basic-level DMOs this year. Selected organizations can receive national funding of 100–200 million KRW per year (approximately $75,000–$150,000) for up to five years, depending on their stage.
This year the government also introduced a new “regional DMO” category to connect two or more local governments and address tourism challenges at a broader scale. Selected were the Pyeongchang County Tourism Council, which links Pyeongchang, Hoengseong, Gangneung and Donghae along a KTX transport corridor, and the Chungbuk Cultural Foundation, which ties Okcheon, Boeun and Yeongdong together under a wellness theme. Each organization will receive 400 million KRW this year (approximately $300,000) to run interregional cooperation projects tackling shared issues like population decline.
Jeong Sun-hee, director of regional development at the Korea Tourism Organization, said, “Revitalizing communities and achieving balanced growth through tourism has become a priority. We will actively support the newly selected DMOs so they can become success stories that energize local economies.”
