South Korea is committing 1.76 trillion won (approximately USD 1.31 billion) to a sweeping regional tourism overhaul, with Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Chae Hwi-young announcing on Wednesday, 28 October 2026 a plan to draw 30 million — and eventually 40 million — foreign visitors annually by developing tourism corridors around five provincial airports. The announcement came as cumulative inbound arrivals this year surpassed 2025's record annual total of 18.94 million, a milestone crossed just one day earlier on Tuesday.

The Problem: Seoul's Tourism Monopoly

Minister Chae Hwi-young was pointed in his diagnosis: more than 80 per cent of inbound travellers currently remain within the greater Seoul metropolitan area, creating a structural bottleneck that limits the industry's long-term scalability. Speaking at a press conference in Seoul, Chae said revitalising regional tourism is 'the primary condition' for achieving the government's visitor targets. The government expects arrivals to cross 20 million in November and hit a year-end target of 23 million.

The 'Golden Routes' Plan

At the heart of the strategy is a 410 billion won pan-ministerial project to establish designated regional tourism zones — officially branded 'golden routes' — anchored around five provincial airports: Gimhae, Daegu, Cheongju, Muan and Yangyang. Each hub will be connected to nearby cultural and natural attractions, with the added incentive of regulatory exemptions and pilot programmes for artificial intelligence (AI) technology in tourism services. Tour programmes are planned around local cuisine, traditional markets, K-pop concerts, and television drama filming locations — experience categories that have already proven magnetic to international visitors.

Fixing Regional Infrastructure Gaps

To address what officials acknowledge as persistent barriers — accommodation shortages and inconvenient transport links in provincial areas — the government will build an integrated lodging platform and offer loans to support construction of high-end hotels in regional hubs. The 2026 tourism budget of 1.76 trillion won represents a 19 per cent increase from this year's allocation of 1.48 trillion won, signalling a multi-year fiscal commitment rather than a one-off push.

High-Value Business Travel and Major Events

The strategy also targets business tourism, with an AI-based platform planned specifically for international conferences. The government intends to leverage major international events scheduled for next year, including World Youth Day in Seoul and the Chungcheong Summer World University Games, as marketing springboards for broader tourism promotion. This dual push — leisure and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) — is designed to raise per-visitor spending, not just headline numbers.

Managing Growth Without Overtourism

'As an irreplaceable travel destination, South Korea is making thorough preparations to welcome 30 million and 40 million visitors a year,' Minister Chae said, adding that the government will 'manage qualitative growth alongside visitor numbers while actively responding to concerns about overtourism so that regional tourism can firmly drive local economies.' Notably, this framing reflects a broader lesson from cities like Barcelona and Kyoto, where unchecked visitor concentration has sparked resident backlash. South Korea's dispersal strategy is, in part, a pre-emptive policy response to that risk. How effectively the golden-route model redistributes visitor footfall across provinces will be the defining test of the plan's success.