Accidents at lodgings with inadequate fire safety facilities or substandard sanitary conditions may not even be covered by insurance. If the lodging is found to be illegal, it falls outside institutional protection. As Korea approaches an era of 30 million foreign tourists, concerns are growing that tourist safety may be left in a blind spot as lodging platforms lack the means to filter out illegal accommodations.
According to the tourism industry on Monday, major lodging platforms including Airbnb, NOL Universe, and Yanolja are struggling to verify the authenticity of business registration certificates submitted by lodging operators. While current laws do not require platforms to verify business registration certificates, limitations are emerging in the self-verification procedures they operate. "Since notation methods differ by municipality, we have to cross-check each one manually," an industry official said. "The structure makes it difficult to determine illegality based on registration certificates alone."
The core of the problem lies in the lodging registration number systems that vary across municipalities. Under the Public Health Control Act and the Tourism Promotion Act, licensing authority for lodging businesses rests with local governments, but the absence of a standard format means number formats differ by region even within the same industry. For rural bed-and-breakfast businesses, Gangneung uses "No. 2026-Gangneung-Minbak-001," Geoje uses "2026-0088," and Yeosu uses "Nongmin-Yeosu-2025-123." There are also cases of handwritten issuances missing official seals or registration numbers.
Recently, AI-generated forged registration certificates have emerged, adding to the verification burden. The Korea Tourism Organization is discussing the establishment of a data cross-verification system with platforms, but evaluations suggest its effectiveness will be limited as long as the number systems remain unstandardized. This contrasts with Japan, which introduced a nationwide common registration number system when it enacted the Residential Accommodation Business Act in 2018 and linked it with platforms in real time.
There are also concerns about supply shortages. The industry views the Seoul lodging market as saturated even at annual foreign tourist levels of just 19 million. At the 11th National Tourism Strategy Meeting in February this year, the government decided to enact a tentatively named Lodging Business Act and unify the management system — currently divided between the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism — under the culture ministry. However, legislation within a short period is unlikely. "We are in discussions with the welfare ministry on the transfer of duties," a culture ministry official said, "but it will take time as a comprehensive legal revision is required."
Tourism demand is already expanding rapidly. Foreign visitors to Korea in the first quarter of this year reached 4.76 million, a record high on a quarterly basis. In March alone, when BTS held its comeback performance, 2.06 million people entered the country, setting a new monthly record, while arrivals at regional airports rose 49.7%. Credit card spending by foreign tourists increased 23% to 3.21 trillion won ($2.35 billion).
