Korea is betting big on tourism innovation, turning to international venture capital to transform its domestic startups into global market leaders. At the 2026 Tourism Global Business Day, hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism alongside the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), more than 270 entrepreneurs, investors and industry delegates gathered at the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas for a two-day dealmaking summit. The event, which concluded Wednesday, set a record turnout for the annual gathering. Central to this year’s expanded program was a newly introduced matchmaking system that facilitated more than 330 one-on-one consultation sessions between promising local startups and institutional investors. Representatives from 20 prominent venture capital firms across six key overseas markets — the United States, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong — attended the Seoul conference. Many of these cross-border investors were brought in through KTO’s network of specialized Korea Tourism Startup Centers currently operating in Singapore, Tokyo and Bangkok