Gyeonggi Province Provides 400,000 Won Emergency Operation Support Funds to Tourism Businesses

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Gyeonggi Province will provide crisis response operation support funds of 400,000 won to approximately 4,000 tourism businesses in the province that are facing difficulties due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

The province will accept applications from February 16 to March 11 at 6 p.m. through the Crisis Response Operation Support Fund website (www.ggwithyou.com).

Eligible recipients are all tourism businesses of small and medium-sized enterprises or smaller in scale under the Tourism Promotion Act within the province, and must not be in a closed or suspended business status as of January 31, 2022.

Additionally, the province will also provide support funds of 100,000 won per vehicle for the first time to charter bus companies that are also engaged in travel services, which have been left out of the province's support projects so far.

Eligible recipients are businesses and charter bus vehicles that have both travel service and charter bus business registered in Gyeonggi Province as of January 31, 2022.

However, public institutions funded or contributed to by the government or local governments and large enterprises are excluded from the eligibility.

Additionally, businesses that have received disciplinary measures of business suspension for 10 days or longer under the Tourism Promotion Act or equivalent surcharge penalties on or after January 1, 2021 are also ineligible for support.

When a single business is registered in multiple business categories such as travel services and tourism accommodation, it will be considered a single business entity and no duplicate payments will be made.

The support funds may be partially adjusted depending on the number of eligible businesses selected. Eligibility confirmation can be done individually on the Crisis Response Operation Support Fund website (www.ggwithyou.com) after March 28. The funds are expected to be disbursed by March 31.

Detailed application requirements and required documents can be found on the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization website (www.gto.or.kr or www.ggwithyou.com, 031-259-4765) and the Gyeonggi Tourism Association website (www.gta.or.kr).

Choi Yong-hun, Head of the Tourism Division of Gyeonggi Province, said "In a situation where the crisis in the tourism industry continues this year due to the spread of omicron and other variants, we have prepared support measures for the industry to help maintain the tourism business ecosystem in the province, even if only slightly" and "Going forward, we will strengthen communication with the tourism industry to enhance Gyeonggi tourism competitiveness."

Last year, the province provided support for business rent payments to 826 tourism businesses and quarantine supplies to 1,772 locations through two tourism industry support programs in the first and second halves of the year.