Busan Selects Five New Tourism Star Companies as ‘2026 Open Innovation’ Program Concludes Successfully

[Financial News] The Busan Tourism Star Companies program, which selects promising local tourism businesses each year and provides them with specialized support, has selected five new participants this year. The companies newly selected as 2026 star companies are Nanugi World, Ever Blue Sea, Delivered Korea, FGK, and S.O.K Management.
Busan Metropolitan City Government and the Busan Tourism Organization (BTO) held the ‘2026 Busan Tourism Star Companies Open Innovation’ event at LOTTE HOTEL BUSAN on the 11th and awarded certificates to the five newly selected star companies, officials said on the 14th.


The event was organized to expand collaboration among companies centered on the Busan Tourism Star Companies and strengthen connections within the local tourism industry. It served as the first collaborative platform under the ‘Busan-style open innovation’ initiative, bringing together startups, large and mid-sized companies, small business owners, online travel agencies (OTAs), investment institutions, and other stakeholders.
Following the certificate presentation ceremony for the new star companies, the event featured a showcase where the companies proposed collaborative projects, including joint product development and platform integration. One-on-one business meetings based on advance matching and networking sessions were also held, with participants discussing various forms of cooperation, such as joint projects, investment attraction, and expanded sales channels.
The Busan Tourism Star Companies program identifies and certifies tourism businesses that can represent Busan, with selected companies receiving intensive support as growth hubs for the local tourism industry. Starting this year, the program has been reorganized from a model focused mainly on financial assistance into a system that supports collaboration among companies and sustainable growth.
Busan Metropolitan City Government and the Busan Tourism Enterprise Support Center will continue operating a hub-and-spoke-based cooperation system. Under the system, star companies with strong tourist accessibility and brand competitiveness serve as growth hubs, while startups, large and mid-sized companies, OTAs, and investment institutions are connected as partners. The city will combine the participating companies’ technology, distribution, and investment capabilities with the tourism content and growth challenges of the star companies to develop new collaboration models and support tangible results, including overseas expansion.
The city will also link the customized growth-support program ‘GPS (Growth, Potential, Scale-up),’ which is based on corporate assessments, with open innovation. This will help ensure that collaboration leads to business-model advancement, investment attraction, expanded sales channels, and other forms of corporate growth. The plan is to create a virtuous cycle in which company growth and tourist spending contribute to revitalizing the local economy.
Kim Kyung-duk, administrative vice mayor of Busan Metropolitan City Government, explained, “Productivity in the tourism industry comes not only from the performance of individual companies but also from a cooperative ecosystem in which companies, content, and services are organically connected.” He added, “The city will foster star companies as growth hubs while actively supporting collaboration among companies so that local startups and small business owners can grow together.”
[email protected] Byun Ok-hwan Reporter