General resorts, along with specialty resorts, campsites, sightseeing boat businesses, tourist performance halls, urban minbak businesses, and hanok experience businesses, are classified as ‘tourist facility business’ under the Tourism Promotion Act, representing relatively large-scale, multi-purpose resorts operated for tourists.
Therefore, while it is challenging to classify them merely as lodging establishments, they can be included in the category of lodging products if they offer lodging functions. The ‘Enforcement Decree of Tourism Promotion Act’ classifies general resorts into two classes as follows:
- Class 1 General Resorts: Businesses that provide lodging or restaurant facilities and at least two types of specialty resort facilities, or lodging or restaurant facilities along with at least one type of specialty resort facility and general amusement facilities for tourist use.
- Class 2 General Resorts: Businesses that provide the facilities required for registration as a tourist lodging establishment and at least two types of specialty resort facilities required for registration as a Class 1 general resort, or at least one type of specialty resort facility and general amusement facilities for tourist use.
Annex 1 of the Enforcement Decree of Tourism Promotion Act stipulates the registration criteria for general resorts as follows:
- Class 1 General Resorts
- Must provide lodging or restaurant facilities and at least two types of specialty resort facilities, or lodging or restaurant facilities and at least one type of specialty resort facility along with general amusement facilities.
- Class 2 General Resorts
- Area: Must be at least 500,000 square meters in a single lot.
- Facilities: Must provide tourist lodging facilities and at least two types of specialty resort facilities required for registration as a Type 1 general resort, or at least one type of specialty resort facility and general amusement facilities.
General resorts are distinguished as a separate category based on the larger scale of facilities compared to specialty resorts. In terms of lodging, smaller specialty resorts often do not include lodging properties, whereas general resorts typically do.
The Tourism Promotion Act defines specialty resorts as ‘businesses that provide lodging facilities (including facilities in rural homestays and natural retreat forests) or restaurant facilities (resting places, general restaurants, confectionery shops) and at least one type of specialty resort facility (such as folk villages, beaches, hunting grounds, zoos, botanical gardens, aquariums, hot springs, caves, swimming pools, tourist farms, hang gliding sites, sports facilities, retreat forests, museums, art galleries) for tourist use.’
