Foreign Tourists' Spending Also Counts as "Export Performance"... Tourism Industry Gets Broader Access to Trade Finance

Six Organizations, Including Tourism and Trade Associations, Sign Agreement
Establish Criteria for Recognizing Tourism Exports and a Joint Review System

Measures are being pursued to establish a system that allows tourism businesses that attract foreign visitors and provide accommodation, travel and international conference services to have their export performance officially recognized and receive trade finance support.

Officials from six organizations, including the Korea Tourism Association and the Korea International Trade Association, pose for a commemorative photo holding their agreement at the signing ceremony for a business agreement to establish a cooperation framework for service trade under the next-generation trade platform, held on the 10th at the Trade Tower in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The agreement aims to refine the system for recognizing export performance in service industries such as tourism, content and software, and link it to trade finance support. Korea Tourism Association.

The Korea Tourism Association Central Council announced that it signed an agreement on November 10 at the Trade Tower in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, with the Korea International Trade Association, the Korea Creative Content Agency, the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, the Korea Association of AI and Software, and the Korea Shipowners' Association to establish a cooperation framework for service trade on the next-generation trade platform.

The agreement aims to integrate, into the AI-based next-generation trade platform being developed by the Korea International Trade Association, the functions for issuing, reviewing and compiling statistics on service export performance, which are currently dispersed across different organizations.

The tourism industry is a service export industry because foreign tourists spend foreign currency in Korea while using services such as accommodation, travel and international conferences. However, unlike in manufacturing, it has been difficult to objectively prove export performance because services are intangible. As a result, tourism businesses have faced limitations in being recognized as export companies and using support programs such as trade finance.

Under the agreement, the Korea Tourism Association Central Council will establish the scope and recognition criteria for service exports in tourism sectors such as travel services, tourism accommodation and international conferences. It plans to develop a standard classification system and a specialized joint review system for the tourism industry, and to use its member network to identify difficulties businesses face in proving their export performance.

The Korea International Trade Association will build a platform to manage export performance and establish a single issuance channel. The Korea Creative Content Agency will standardize the export classification system for K-content, while the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation will link verified export performance to trade finance. The Korea Association of AI and Software and the Korea Shipowners' Association will also develop classification and joint review systems tailored to their respective industries.

Once the system is in place, tourism businesses will be able to prove their export performance through the next-generation trade platform and access trade finance support, such as export guarantees and insurance from the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, through online services. The system is also expected to help measure the tourism industry's contribution to service exports through statistics.

The signing ceremony was attended by Lee Kyungsoo, president of the Korea Tourism Association Central Council; Yoon Jinsik, chairman of the Korea International Trade Association; Kim Yunji, president of the Korea Creative Content Agency; Jang Youngjin, president of the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation; Cho Junhee, chairman of the Korea Association of AI and Software; and Park Jeongseok, chairman of the Korea Shipowners' Association.

President Lee said, "Tourism is a representative high-value-added service industry in which the fact that foreign tourists visit Korea and spend money here itself constitutes an export. We will work actively to establish a tourism-specific classification system and joint review system so tourism businesses can have their export performance officially recognized and receive export support, including trade finance."

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