Gyeonggi Province Supports About 500 Tourism Businesses with Revenue Declines, Providing Up to 3 Million Won Each

[Suwon Ilbo = Reporter Park No-hun] Gyeonggi Province will support rental fees of up to 3 million won for approximately 500 tourism businesses in the province experiencing revenue declines due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

Gyeonggi Province will accept applications for the "COVID-19 Overcoming Tourism Industry Activation Support Project (2nd Phase)" from October 7 through 6 p.m. on October 22 through the application portal on the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization website (ggwithyou.com).

Eligible applicants are businesses located in Gyeonggi Province that completed tourism business and National Tax Service business registration by December 31 of last year.

As of the announcement date of October 7, businesses must not be in suspended or closed status, and must have experienced a decline in average daily sales in the first half of this year compared to 2019-2020.

Businesses that received support from the "COVID-19 Overcoming Tourism Industry Activation Support Project (1st Phase)" in the first half of this year cannot apply.

Businesses operating business premises under personal ownership or lease arrangements are also ineligible to apply.

Additionally, businesses that received operational suspension of 10 days or more or equivalent penalty disposition under the Tourism Promotion Act after January 1, 2019 cannot receive support.

Travel agencies operating both domestic and international business can only apply as one business entity.

The selection criteria for supported businesses will be based on the rate of decline in average daily sales in the first half of this year compared to 2019-2020, with selection continuing until the budget is exhausted. The list of selected businesses will be announced on the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization website portal after November 1.

Support funds are scheduled to be disbursed from early November.

Details on application requirements and required documents can be found in the public notices posted on the Gyeonggi Province (gg.go.kr) and Gyeonggi Tourism Organization (gto.or.kr), and Gyeonggi Tourism Association websites (gta.or.kr).

Kim Jin-gi, director of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of Gyeonggi Province, said, "In response to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, we have decided to re-implement the tourism industry support project that was promoted in the first half to maintain the tourism industry ecosystem," and added, "We hope this will be of some help in maintaining the industry until the tourism sector normalizes."

In the first half of this year, the province supported up to 3 million won in business premises rental fees for 335 tourism businesses in the province through the "COVID-19 Overcoming Tourism Industry Support Project (1st Phase)."