Incheon Tourism Organization wins PATA Gold Award for inclusive smart tourism app

The Incheon Tourism Organization's smart tourism service has earned international recognition for inclusivity in the Asia-Pacific travel industry.

The organization won the 2026 PATA Gold Award at the 2026 PATA Travel Mart, held recently in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.

The award was presented in the "Tourism for All — Destination Inclusivity" category.

The organization was selected as a winner for its AI-based inclusive regenerative tourism project, developed using its smart tourism application Incheon e-ji.

The PATA Gold Award is an international tourism prize presented by the Pacific Asia Travel Association.

PATA is an international nonprofit membership organization that works to advance the tourism industry and foster a sustainable tourism ecosystem across the Asia-Pacific region. A total of 13 organizations received awards in the sustainability and social responsibility categories at this year's ceremony.

The Incheon Tourism Organization was recognized for integrating digital technology into tourism services to improve accessibility for a wide range of travelers, including those with limited mobility or other vulnerabilities.

Incheon e-ji provides an AI-powered travel assistant that consolidates tourist information searches, itinerary recommendations and map-based navigation into a single service.

The app supports multiple languages — including English, Chinese and Japanese — allowing foreign tourists to access travel information without a separate translation application.

Efforts to improve mobile accessibility have also continued. Incheon e-ji has received mobile accessibility certification from the Korea Web Accessibility Certification and Evaluation Institute for three consecutive years, and on Wednesday it also won the grand prize in the public sector category at the ICT Awards.

Through a government-funded data voucher project, the organization plans to introduce additional AI-based personalized mobility and accessibility guidance services targeting wheelchair users, elderly visitors and families with young children.

"It is meaningful that our user-centered services — including the AI travel assistant, multilingual support and accessibility improvements — have been recognized on the international stage," said Kim Ji-an, head of the tourism marketing division at the Incheon Tourism Organization.