Tourism Is Already a Mega Industry — The State Still Treats It Small
Creatrip Team
3 months ago
Professor Lee Hoon of Hanyang University warns that South Korea’s tourism boom is misunderstood because the sector is defined too narrowly. Although inbound and outbound travel hit record levels, laws, statistics and administrative systems still confine tourism to traditional travel businesses, so GDP contribution appears small (3–4% by current industrial classification). In reality tourism links food, transport, payments, retail, platforms and manufacturing, and many related activities fall outside tourism policy. This narrow definition shrinks budgets, political attention and staffing. Korea also lacks a national control tower to coordinate ministries (e.g., culture ministry, land/transport, industry, oceans, agriculture) and has no coherent workforce strategy: tourism education and talent pipelines collapsed after COVID-19 and were not rebuilt. Lee urges redefining tourism as a national strategic industry, creating coordinating governance and rebuilding human resources — otherwise the current boom will remain only a number.
