Poster for "2022 Travel Month" (unofficial title) (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism)

By Yoo Yeon Gyeong and Lee Jihae

The government has designated next month "Travel Month" to stimulate large-scale domestic tourism to meet rising public demand for traveling since the lifting of social distancing measures.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on May 24 said it will push ahead with its campaign "2022 Travel Month" (unofficial title) from June 2-30 along with the Korea Tourism Organization. Intended to quickly restore the domestic travel market, the month-long promotion is an extension of "Travel Week" (unofficial title), an event run for two weeks every spring and fall since 2014.

In transportation, the Korea Rail Corp. will offer a 50% discount on seats of the five train lines including the high-speed KTX. Kakao Mobility will also provide half-price reservations for Kakao T City Tour Bus.

Discounts will also go to travelers who reserve accommodations in the provinces that exceed KRW 70,000. From June 7-9, eight local governments in the provinces of Gangwon-do, Gyeonggi-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do and the cities of Daegu, Daejeon, Busan, Sejong and Incheon will issue coupons for KRW 50,000 off lodging within their respective regions.

From June 10, a discount of KRW 30,000 will go to tourists reserving accommodations worth more than KRW 70,000 in areas outside of Seoul.

More information on the month's discounts, schedule of related events and explanation on  participation is available on the event's homepage (in Korean): https://korean.visitkorea.or.kr/other/otherService.do?otdid=46a412aa-0b3b-11ea-869b-020027310001.

Kim Jang-ho, director-general of the ministry's Tourism Policy Bureau, said, "For this year's 'Travel Month' event, we prepared more benefits than in previous years to allow domestic travel to heal the hearts and minds of the public weary from the COVID-19 pandemic," adding, "The hope is that domestic travel returns to normal through this program."

dusrud21@korea.kr