Airbnb, art sales included in Culture Ministry's latest regulation update pitches

Culture Minister Yu In-chon announces a handful of new innovative regulations to be adopted by the ministry this year, on Monday in central Seoul. [YONHAP]

Koreans may soon be allowed to use short-term home leasing services like Airbnb and even sell artwork produced after 1946 to foreigners or take it overseas, all without first needing to obtain the government’s approval.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism presided over a meeting on Monday in central Seoul and announced a handful of new innovative regulations that the ministry plans to adopt sometime later this year, aimed at promoting more free and creative culture, sports and tourism industries.

Until now, it has only been legal for foreigners to rent a property or room via home-sharing services in Korea as property owners were not allowed to rent out homes or rooms to Korean nationals.

However, the regulation received criticism for being nearly impossible to regulate and limiting new businesses from being developed in the tourism industry.

Culture Minister Yu In-chon said Monday that the ministry will amend and institutionalize necessary laws and regulations to allow Korean nationals, also, to stay at such short-term lodging services in the near future, adding that the ministry believes it will “help respond to new tourism demand.”

Regulations related to selling and taking old artwork outside the country will also be updated. Until now, artwork produced by Korean artists more than 50 years ago have been banned from being exported, but with the revision, artwork produced after 1946 will be allowed to be taken outside the country and can be sold to non-Koreans without obtaining the government’s approval.

The Culture Ministry said it will also actively communicate with the Cultural Heritage Administration and the art industries to adopt a pricing standard and revise administrative procedures to reduce burdens on the art industry.

Webtoons and web novels will be exempt from the government’s fixed book pricing. Since webtoons and web novels have different production and distribution structures compared to more traditional types of publications, insiders have argued that uniformly applying the government’s book pricing system creates numerous problems.

The Culture Ministry said this will help create various pricing policies tailored to the characteristics of the content and will revitalize the webtoon and web novel industries, while readers can enjoy such content at a more affordable price.

“Since taking office, I’ve had some 150 meetings with people from diverse industries under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and came up with about 20 sets of new innovative regulations,” Yu said. “From now on, the ministry will boldly and quickly innovate regulations that hinder growth.”

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]