Regulatory Easing for a Global City... Seoul Calls for Unified Accommodation Registration and Reporting System

Proposal for Differential Review of Foreign Perfomances

Request for Standardization of Accommodation Registration and Report Numbers

Need for Clear Classification Criteria for VR Content as Film or Game

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has requested that the central government standardize the "accommodation registration/report number," which is currently indicated differently by each local government, establishing a nationwide common standard. This measure aims to alleviate the inconvenience of verifying the authenticity of registration certificates, which has not been easy.

On October 1, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it had identified three regulatory issues in the fields of performances by foreigners, accommodation, and VR content for improvement and had submitted proposals for regulatory revisions to the Office for Government Policy Coordination, with the goal of advancing into a global cultural and tourism city.

The three proposals are as follows: mitigation of the mandatory prior recommendation from the Korea Media Rating Board for performances by foreigners in Korea; promotion of nationwide standardization of accommodation "registration/report numbers"; and clarification of classification criteria for interactive VR content as either films or games.

First, Seoul proposed that the "prior recommendation system for performances by foreigners in Korea," which is currently applied uniformly to all performances featuring foreigners, should instead be applied differentially depending on the need for review of the specific performance.

According to the current "Performances Act," when a foreigner performs in Korea or foreigners are invited to perform here, a prior recommendation from the Korea Media Rating Board is required in all cases except for certain exceptions such as national or local government invitations. Performing without this recommendation can result in imprisonment for up to three years or a fine of up to 30 million won.

However, the recommendation process is in fact largely a formality. Of the 1,998 general performance recommendation applications in 2025, 1,980 (99%) were recommended, and similarly, 99% of 1,695 cases this year were recommended. The average recommendation rate for the past three years is 99%. Deliberations are usually held once a week at the Performance Recommendation Subcommittee. Applicants may need to wait until the next meeting depending on when they apply or whether the submitted documents need supplementation. If the cast or performance schedule changes, an amended recommendation must be obtained.

Therefore, Seoul requested that the current uniform recommendation by the Korea Media Rating Board be replaced with a differential approach based on the actual need for review of general performances. For certain general performances where the necessity for prior recommendation is low, as determined according to the content, performers, performance format, and proportion of foreigners, Seoul suggests converting the system to a simple notification process.

Seoul also requested standardization of the "accommodation registration/report number," which is currently indicated differently by each local government. Accommodation business operators are required to register or report to their local government and receive a certificate in accordance with the "Tourism Promotion Act" or the "Public Health Control Act." However, the current law only specifies the items to be included on the certificate, not the format for indicating the registration or report number, resulting in each district of Seoul using different notations.

Because of this, accommodation platforms find it difficult to automatically verify the authenticity of registration certificates and must do so manually, one by one. Recently, even forged certificates generated using artificial intelligence (AI) have appeared, prompting calls from the industry itself for standardization.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government believes that if these proposals are accepted, users will be able to immediately verify the legitimacy of accommodations on the platform, and platforms will be able to efficiently check whether an accommodation is legitimate, which is expected to significantly enhance the credibility of the accommodation and tourism industry as a whole.

In addition, the city also proposed clarification of the criteria for classifying VR content as either film or game. Under the current "Promotion of the Motion Pictures and Video Products Act" and the "Game Industry Promotion Act," there are no specific classification standards for VR content. As a result, in practice the field has had to rely on the Korea Media Rating Board's review customs. Seoul expects that if its proposal is accepted, the production and distribution of film-type VR content will be revitalized, contributing to strengthening the competitiveness of the immersive content industry.

Cho Wanseok, Director of Regulatory Innovation Planning for the Seoul Metropolitan Government, stated, "Although global demand for performances and tourism is increasing and new content industries are growing rapidly, some systems have not adequately reflected the reality on the ground. While preserving the original intent of the system, we will continue to actively propose improvements to the government for the removal of regulations disconnected from the present-day context, so that Seoul can rise as a global cultural and tourism city."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.