Ruling Party Lawmaker Proposes ‘Provisional Tourist Zone’ Status for Areas Planned for Major Cultural Facilities

A South Korean lawmaker wants areas preparing to host major cultural facilities to receive tourist-zone status before the facilities open, arguing that infrastructure should not have to wait for visitors to arrive.

Kim Jae-seop of the People Power Party, who represents Seoul’s Dobong-A constituency, submitted a revision to the Tourism Promotion Act. The bill would permit areas where large cultural facilities are planned to receive provisional tourist-zone designation for up to five years.

Under the current law, a tourist zone must attract a certain number of foreign visitors and provide conditions such as tourist information and accommodation facilities. National and local governments can then provide various forms of support.

That framework creates a problem for planned cultural venues, according to the bill’s rationale. Until a facility begins operating, the area may struggle to meet the foreign-visitor threshold, making it difficult to install roads, hotels and tourist information facilities in advance.

The proposed amendment targets areas that have completed the administrative procedures required to build a major cultural facility. If the facility later begins operations and the area meets the conditions for full tourist-zone designation, the provisional status would provide a way to prepare the necessary infrastructure beforehand.