The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said on the 10th that it has eased regulations related to foreigner-only urban homestay businesses to meet the surging demand for inbound tourism.
The key of this regulatory improvement is to lift operating restrictions on old dwellings and to make foreign-language service standards more realistic, lowering barriers to entry for the industry.
Under the Foreign Tourist Urban Homestay Business Handling Guidelines, aging buildings more than 30 years past their use approval could not be registered for foreign tourist urban homestay business regardless of safety verification. In response, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism removed this provision after reflecting on-ground input from the foreign tourist urban homestay business association and local governments.
Going forward, local government officials will directly inspect the actual safety condition of buildings to determine registration, and if the standards set by the Building Act and the Building Management Act are met, buildings older than 30 years can also be registered for homestay business.
If the dwelling subject to registration is marked as a violating building or if structural risk is suspected, local governments may seek expert advice from architects and others to assess safety.
The requirements for evaluating foreign-language services were also eased. Moving away from assessing the business operator's foreign-language skills themselves, if smooth communication with foreign tourists is possible using auxiliary tools such as interpretation applications (apps), it will be deemed to meet the service standards.
In addition, the requirement for official language scores, which used the passing benchmark for licensed tourist interpreters (TOEIC 760 points) as a standard, will be abolished. Instead, the evaluation will focus on whether there is actual capability to provide guidance and convenience to tourists. This revision is a follow-up measure to the "policy and industry infrastructure innovation" task discussed at the 10th National Tourism Strategy Meeting held on the 25th of last month.
A Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official said, "Based on on-site input, we eased building standards and made the foreign-language service standards more realistic," adding, "We expect that the amendment to the guidelines will lower barriers to entry for foreign tourist urban homestay businesses and enable foreign tourists to experience a variety of services at homestay accommodations."