Busan moves to crack down on price gouging ahead of BTS concert... “Securing public lodging”

[Financial News] The Busan Metropolitan City Government announced on the 23rd that it held a joint public–private countermeasure meeting to prevent price gouging at lodging facilities and elsewhere ahead of the BTS world tour concert scheduled to take place in Busan Metropolitan City on June 12–13.
At the meeting held the previous day, relevant city departments, seven district offices including Haeundae and Suyeong District, the Busan Tourism Organization (BTO), and associations related to lodging, dining, and consumers gathered to assess the current situation and review comprehensive response measures to establish a reasonable price system.
In particular, participants focused on identifying the most practical countermeasures the city can take, given institutional limitations that make it difficult to directly sanction the act of setting price-gouging rates itself.
To this end, the city discussed temporarily opening public lodging facilities such as university dormitories and annex facilities, as well as youth training centers, during future large-scale events in order to stabilize accommodation prices.
The city will also expand the designation of businesses under the Good Price Business Certification Program and provide support to encourage voluntary participation. Ahead of the BTS concert, it plans to focus on newly certifying lodging businesses under this program, while simplifying application procedures and streamlining screening and designation processes to minimize processing time. At the same time, it will expand incentives and promote certified businesses through social networking service (SNS) platforms and other media to strengthen their competitiveness.
In addition, the city will hold a joint public–private price stabilization campaign and a resolution meeting encouraging voluntary improvements by business operators. It plans to carry out immediate inspections and corrective measures for lodging businesses reported for price gouging and to promptly inform complainants of the results.
Based on the measures discussed at the meeting, the city intends to establish a “sector-specific standing response manual” that can be activated immediately when large events are held, enabling preemptive action to stabilize prices.
The manual is built around four key tasks: swiftly identifying and securing available lodging capacity; conducting immediate on-site inspections and joint inspections when complaints are filed; providing incentives and promotion through the Good Price Business Certification Program; and expanding public–private cooperation campaigns.
Meanwhile, since the 16th, the city has been operating a “Price Gouging QR Reporting Center” on its official website.
For businesses reported online, a joint inspection team from the city and district and county governments visits the sites, checks whether operators are complying with their obligations, and carries out guidance alongside enforcement measures.
Seong Hee-yeop, Vice Mayor for Future Innovation of Busan Metropolitan City, stated, “Repeated excessive price hikes during major events are a serious issue that harms not only the city image of Busan Metropolitan City as it stands on the verge of welcoming 5 million foreign tourists, but also the brands and credibility of individual businesses.” He added, “From securing sufficient lodging capacity and conducting on-site inspections to providing incentives and expanding campaigns, all city departments and related organizations will mount an all-out response based on the tasks discussed at this meeting, so that we can build Busan into a fair and dignified tourist city.”
bsk730@fnnews.com Kwon Byung-seok Reporter