The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has selected five AI technology firms to pilot navigation, congestion analysis, multilingual guidance, and barrier-free services at traditional markets and national parks.
The KTO said Wednesday it had chosen DeepFine, bitsensing, TUAT, Triplet, and Flitto as the final companies to solve on-site tourism challenges using AI, through the "2026 Tourism AI Open Innovation Travel X-Lab (TRVL-X Lab)."
The project is divided into a traditional market track and a national park track. The traditional market track targets six locations among the second cohort of the "K-Tourism Market" that the KTO is developing into global tourist attractions: Kyungdong Market, Danyang Gugyeong Market, Mangwon Market, Suwon Nammun Market, the Andong Gu Market Association, and Haeundae Market. The national park track is conducted in the Tohamsan district of Gyeongju National Park.
The selected companies will pilot AI services at each tourism site within this year. The main tasks include AI maps that provide customized information and travel routes, AI density analysis that analyzes real-time congested areas, AI multilingual guidance that helps translate menus and products, and AI barrier-free services that improve mobility and convenience for vulnerable tourist groups.
AI density analysis uses video AI technology to track the number of traditional market visitors, their movement paths, and dwell times. Through this, the KTO plans to analyze visitor flows as data, which have been difficult to verify on-site until now, and use the findings for policies to revitalize traditional markets.
"We expect that integrating AI technology into representative tourism sites will enhance the convenience and safety of tourists," said Kim Young-mi, head of the Tourism AI Innovation Division. "Together with technology firms, we will solve the challenges of tourism sites and create a tourism environment that is easy for everyone to use."
