K-pop performances at Seoul Arena will be enjoyed simultaneously in front of large screens in Gwanghwamun and Myeongdong. Foreign tourists will ask a single AI assistant for recommendations on restaurants, transportation, and shopping. This vision for the future of tourism in Seoul comes from Kim Byung-min, the newly appointed head of the Seoul Tourism Foundation.
The key concept behind this vision is 'connection.' The goal is to weave together scattered tourism resources using AI and data to create a massive tourism platform for the entire city of Seoul.
Tourism is an industry of connections. Travelers disembark from planes, check into hotels, dine at restaurants, attend performances, and shop. While transportation, accommodation, food, entertainment, shopping, and safety may seem separate, they collectively form a single travel experience for tourists. If any one link is weak, the overall impression of the city can be affected.
This is why Kim emphasized 'connection' in his inaugural address. He stated that he would redefine the foundation's role as a platform that connects resources scattered across the city, including the Seoul city government, local districts, the entertainment industry, and private businesses. Instead of the foundation managing all projects independently, it aims to become a connector that unites tourism resources across Seoul into a cohesive experience.
A project that symbolizes this vision is 'Connected Live.' This initiative will broadcast live performances from venues to large screens in urban areas, allowing citizens and tourists to enjoy the shows together. Kim plans to link K-pop performances at the Seoul Arena with screens in popular tourist areas like Gwanghwamun and Myeongdong when the arena opens next year.
If the screens in Myeongdong's Lotte Avenue and Shinsegae flagship store are included, the concept of a performance will change entirely. While the arena can accommodate up to 28,000 people, the audience in the city could be many times larger. Once a performance transcends the walls of a building, the entire city of Seoul becomes the stage.
With AI, the stage transforms into a pathway. It can inform visitors about which performances are happening that night, recommend nearby restaurants before the show, and suggest nighttime attractions afterward. Creating personalized itineraries based on nationality, language, age, and preferences is also feasible.
The foundation's plan to integrate AI into tourist information centers aims to enhance concierge services by providing transportation, food, and shopping information all at once. This shift will transform the travel experience from asking questions one by one at information desks to having a travel assistant that understands individual inquiries and circumstances.
Travel involves a series of choices. Tourists must constantly decide where to stay, what to eat, and where to go. For foreigners, language, payment, and transportation barriers add to the complexity. Gathering scattered information and providing tailored answers is where generative AI excels. Tourism is one of the industries where AI can most directly alleviate inconveniences for people.
However, the success of AI in tourism does not rely on flashy chatbots. To provide accurate answers to any question, reliable data about attractions, performances, restaurants, transportation, shopping, and payments is essential. While the tourism information provided by the foundation's Visit Seoul platform is a valuable asset, it is insufficient when relying solely on public data.
It must be integrated with real-time information from the private sector. If performance times change or a restaurant closes, and the AI provides outdated information, it becomes a misguiding assistant rather than a helpful one. The competitiveness of AI ultimately stems from the accuracy of its data.
Another challenge for Kim is to distribute the benefits of tourism throughout Seoul. If foreign spending is concentrated only in Myeongdong's duty-free shops and large malls, the economic benefits will remain limited to certain areas, regardless of the number of tourists. To ensure that the entire city benefits from tourism, visitors must also reach places like Sindang-dong's Sinjungang Market, K-food districts, traditional markets, and small businesses.
AI can facilitate this as well. It can recommend markets and restaurants that match tourists' preferences after shopping in Myeongdong, along with the most convenient routes and payment methods. By dispersing foot traffic from popular tourist spots into alleyways, AI can transform from a travel convenience service into a channel that directs tourism spending into the local economy.
The final hurdle in this process is payment. Even if tourists find great restaurants and markets, if their preferred payment methods are not accepted in Seoul, their visits will not translate into spending. Kim's plan to establish a global payment system that allows easy use of various payment methods in Seoul and to enhance the Discover Seoul Pass is crucial for this reason.
In this context, the 'tourism foundation as a platform' and AI are interlinked. The foundation does not need to directly operate hotels or performance venues, nor does it need to create all services independently. The public sector lays the groundwork with reliable data, while the private sector builds diverse services and content on top of it.
Tourists will receive all of this as a single experience through AI. The evolution from an 'organization that conducts tourism business' to a 'platform that connects Seoul's tourism resources' is the path the tourism foundation must take in the AI era.
As a result, the face of travel in Seoul will change. The era of showing the same Seoul to all tourists is coming to an end. For K-pop fans, it will be a city of performances; for food lovers, a city of hidden culinary gems; for history enthusiasts, a city of palaces and museums; and for shoppers, a city of Myeongdong and Seongsu. In the AI era, cities will also become personalized.
Kim stated that he wants Seoul to be remembered as a city where visitors feel they have 'not seen everything yet' and want to return, making it a place that everyone in the world wants to experience at least once. This means that simply increasing the number of tourists is not enough. Each visitor should stay longer, experience more, and be encouraged to return.
Seoul already has content that the world covets, including K-pop, K-food, palaces, the Han River, shopping, art, performances, and nightlife. What is lacking is not content but the ability to connect that content effectively to each individual tourist. A great tourist city is not one with many sights but one where visitors can easily find what they want.
AI will help each person discover their 'own Seoul.' The AI transformation led by Kim Byung-min at the Seoul Tourism Foundation starts from this point.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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