Get paid for your workers’ vacation and travel domestically

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister Yoo In-chon, hereinafter referred to as MCST) and the Korea Tourism Organization (hereinafter referred to as the Tourism Organization) will recruit companies to participate in the ‘Worker Vacation Support Project’ starting on Friday, January 24 to support domestic travel expenses for workers.

  The ‘Worker Vacation Support Project’ is a project that fosters a free vacation culture in the workplace and encourages domestic travel for workers. When a worker saves 200,000 won, the company the worker belongs to and the government each save an additional 100,000 won, for a total of 400,000 won that can be used for domestic travel expenses.

 As part of the follow-up measures to the ‘National Tourism Strategy Meeting’ held at the end of last year ,  the implementation was expanded beyond the original plan.

  Since its implementation in 2018, this project has seen the participation of approximately 70,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and over 670,000 workers over the past seven years. According to a survey conducted last year, 55.2% of workers went on unplanned domestic tours as a result of their participation in the project, and it was found that they spent approximately 8.9 times more on travel expenses than the government subsidy of 100,000 won, which was a great help in activating domestic tourism and boosting domestic demand. Considering these ripple effects, the government announced at the ‘National Tourism Strategy Meeting’ held at the end of last year that it would expand the original project targeting 65,000 people to support up to 150,000 people as part of follow-up measures to promote domestic tourism by stimulating national travel demand.

  This year’s business participants are small and medium-sized enterprises, small business owners, non-profit private organizations, and social welfare corporations and facility workers. Applications for participation will be accepted by company unit through the Worker Vacation Support Project website (vacation.visitkorea.or.kr) from Friday, January 24, and will be accepted until the total support funds are exhausted, with a target of 150,000 people. Afterwards, if the selected companies and workers accumulate funds, they can freely purchase domestic travel-related products such as accommodation, transportation, domestic travel package products, and tourist attraction admission tickets through the dedicated website ‘Vacation Shop’ and the dedicated mobile application (app).

This is the 8th year of business, and we are expanding our participation in the support system for mutual growth for mutual cooperation.

  In particular, as this year marks the 8th year of the project, in order to allow more SMEs to participate, mid-sized companies will be excluded from the support target, and for mid-sized companies that have participated for 5 years, the corporate contribution will be increased from the existing 100,000 won to 150,000 won. In addition, the joint growth support system ^* , which benefited more than 16,000 people last year, will further encourage participation from large corporations and expand participation in the private sector.

  * A system in which public institutions, large corporations, etc. pay the savings of small and medium-sized enterprises or corporate employees

  Various benefits are also provided to companies participating in the project. Participating companies are issued with a participation certificate and given additional points or recognition for their performance when applying for various government certifications such as leisure-friendly certification (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) and excellent work-life balance companies (Ministry of Employment and Labor). If selected as an excellent participating company in the future, they will be given a government award and given the opportunity to promote their company by being included in a collection of best practices.

  For more detailed information, including how to apply for participation in this support project, please visit the Workers’ Vacation Support Project website and the dedicated support center (☎ 1670-1330).

Editor. Hong Se-yeong