South Korea Expands 'Half-Price Travel' to 9 More Rural Areas
Creatrip Team
21 days ago
The Culture Ministry and Korea Tourism Organization will add nine rural districts to the 'half-price travel' program, which refunds half of travel costs in mobile local gift certificates (regional 상품권) to visitors. New participating areas — including Hwacheon, Andong, Taean and others — will start service sequentially from the end of this month. Refunds are capped at 100,000 KRW per person (140,000 KRW for youth). Since April, 16 regions have participated; through June the program used 5.2 billion KRW in refunds and generated at least 16.2 billion KRW in local spending, mainly on food & drink (45.5%) and lodging (32.2%). Surveys show 76.4% of users increased spending because of the refund, 31.2% took trips they had not planned, and 56.3% were first-time visitors to the area. Some municipalities will continue the program into the second half by adding budgets; applications are handled on local government websites.
