2010-07 - Korea IT Times

Cover Story
MCST Pushes Convergence
of IT, Tourism and Culture
16 KOREA IT TIMES | July 2010
Yu In-chon, Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST)
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) is actively
pushing ahead with building advanced tourism information [IT
assisted tourism] cities across the country, a top official of the
ministry said.
In an interview with
Korea IT Times, Yu Inchon,
minister of MCST,
said, "The ministry is propelling
a project to construct
advanced tourism
information cities in the
country to promote users'
convenience."
Noting that advanced
countries are paying keen
attention to the advent of
the ubiquitous era, a new
paradigm of information
technology, Minister Yu
said, "To actively cope
with the ubiquitous information
era, the government
is concentrating its
efforts on building ubiquitous
information systems."
Commenting that various
services based on mobile
technology are active
these days in keeping with
the advent of the ubiquitous
era, he said, "The nation's tourism industry, however, is facing
many difficulties in creating services using the ubiquitous
technology owing to insufficient accumulation and use of information
technology. Accordingly, the ministry is making all-out
efforts to expand digital contents services related to tourism resources.
"To build advanced tourism information systems suitable for
ubiquitous environment and strengthen the nation's status as an
IT powerhouse, we are constructing advanced tourism information
cities in the country," he said.
The ministry is planning to make North Chungcheong
Province and Yeongdeok in North Gyeongsang Province advanced
tourism information
cities this year. It already carried
out the project to build
advanced tourism information
cities in 10 places, including
Andong and Sockcho in
2005, Tongyeong and Boryeong
in 2006, Busan and
Gongju in 2007, Incheon and
Daegu in 2008 and South jeolla
Province and Gwangju in
2009.
"We also introduced the
'unmanned tourism guide system"
using cultural resources
and IT infrastructure to
Gyeongbok Palace on June 1,
2010. Through the system, we
plan to attract more foreign
tourists and enhance convenience
for domestic and foreign
tourists," he said.
Related to this, Minister Yu
is also making a strong push
for the "everywhere I-walk
project" in major tourist spots
across the country, including
Gyeongju, once the capital of the Silla Dynasty.
"We will continuously push for a project that combines stateof-the-art
IT technology and tourism resources to attract more foreign
tourists to the country," said Yu.
Identity of Tourism Korea
Asked about the identity of differentiated "tourism Korea,"
Minister Yu said, "Advanced tourist countries are equipped with