Foreign tourists walk at Deoksu Palace in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
As foreign tourists crowd major cities and rural regions struggle to attract visitors, tourism officials from across the developing world gathered in Korea Thursday to search for a solution that has eluded governments worldwide: how to spread tourism wealth beyond capital cities.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said it hosted the 2026 KOPIST High-Level Tourism Policy Forum in Sejong under the theme of “strategic approaches to revitalizing regional tourism.”
The event brought together senior tourism officials from 10 countries, including Indonesia, Ghana, Mongolia, Peru and Egypt, to discuss policies aimed at expanding tourism benefits across entire countries rather than concentrating them in major urban centers.
KOPIST, short for the Korea Partnership Initiative on Sustainable Tourism, is the ministry’s flagship official development assistance program focused on tourism cooperation with developing countries.
