Anseong Mayor Kim Bo-ra Visits National Assembly to Promote Legislation on Sustainable Tourism

Anseong Mayor Kim Bo-ra, serving as standing chairperson of the Local Government Council for Sustainable Tourism, has begun taking substantive steps to institutionalize sustainable tourism.

Mayor Kim Bo-ra visited the National Assembly on the 24th and met with Rep. Lee Jae-jeong, chair of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, and Rep. Kim Jae-won, urging swift processing of a partial amendment bill to the 'Tourism Promotion Act' with 'designation of sustainable tourism cities' as its main provision.

The visit was attended by Kim Bo-ra, standing chairperson of the Local Government Council for Sustainable Tourism, along with Kim Je-seon, co-chairperson (superintendent of Jung-gu, Daejeon), and Sohn Bae-chan, vice chairperson (mayor of Paju).

During this National Assembly visit, they explained the necessity of sustainable tourism policies that go beyond tourism policies focused on attracting visitors and expanding facilities to simultaneously achieve regional economic vitalization, improvements in residents' quality of life, and preservation of cultural and environmental resources. They also requested the National Assembly's attention and cooperation.

In particular, the council recommended to the National Assembly △processing of the 'Tourism Promotion Act' amendment containing 'designation of sustainable tourism cities' by the second half of 2026 △securing budgets for implementing sustainable tourism pilot projects △establishing administrative and financial support systems to back local governments' policy initiatives.

The amendment bill was jointly sponsored by Reps. Min Hyung-bae and Kim Jae-won on May 29, 2025, and contains grounds for designation of sustainable tourism cities, performance evaluation, and administrative and financial support. It is currently referred to the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee's bill examination subcommittee of the National Assembly.

Anseong Mayor Kim Bo-ra stated, "Sustainable tourism is an important policy that goes beyond simply increasing visitors to protect regional culture and environment while adding vitality to the local economy and improving residents' quality of life. As standing chairperson of the council, I will play an active role in establishing legal and institutional foundations so that sustainable tourism can take root as a genuine growth engine for the region."

Going forward, the council plans to continue visiting relevant agencies including the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to publicize the necessity of legislating sustainable tourism cities and to conduct policy consultations to establish realistic designation, evaluation, and support systems that take into account the scale and financial conditions of each region.