![“Even the president’s daughter did it” The reason why illegal shared accommodations are not cracked down properly[기자의눈] : ZUM News](https://thumb.zumst.com/530x0/https://static.news.zumst.com/images/51/2024/10/27/ae77499908e047bcb9da9c494edc8383.jpg "“Even the president’s daughter did it” The reason why illegal shared accommodations are not cracked down properly[기자의눈] : ZUM News")
“If this is caught (and punished), tens of thousands of shared lodging operators across the country will all be in trouble. It’s an expedient method, but wasn’t it just customary to turn a blind eye to it?”
(Seoul = News 1) Travel reporter Seulbin Yoon = This is a comment posted on an article about former President Moon Jae-in’s daughter, Moon Da-hye (41), who was recently investigated by the police on suspicion of illegal shared lodging business.
Dahye Moon is receiving criticism after being reported to have illegally operated her Jeju Island villa and Yeongdeungpo-gu officetel on the shared lodging platform Airbnb. They used villas that had not been registered for business and officetels that were not allowed to operate in the first place to make money.
All eyes are focused on Dahye Moon, who committed the illegal act, but as pointed out in the comment, there is something that is overlooked. Illegal shared lodging is so prevalent that even the president’s daughter runs it without hesitation, and it is clearly revealed that the government’s management of this is inadequate.
First of all, ‘illegal shared accommodation’ has the problem of tax evasion by operators, and in addition, it is difficult to be protected against unexpected accidents that occur while staying in illegal accommodation. In the worst case, it can be abused for violent crimes.
Nevertheless, there is no government agency that will take charge of management and supervision as well as the legal system related to the shared accommodation industry. Currently, the lodging industry is managed by the relevant ministries under three laws: the Tourism Promotion Act (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), the Public Hygiene Management Act (Ministry of Health and Welfare), and the Rural Development Act (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs), but the punishment provisions for illegal business activities are different.
At least, the Public Health Management Act, which governs the general and residential lodging industry, punishes businesses that engage in illegal business activities from a one-month suspension of business to an order to close the business, but the rest of the laws do not have any punishment provisions.
The Tourism Promotion Act under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which regulates as many as 11 industries, including foreign tourist city lodging businesses, hanok experience businesses, and tourist pension businesses, does not punish even serious illegal business practices such as prostitution brokerage.
Crackdowns are also not carried out properly. Since the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism does not have the authority to directly crack down on illegal lodging facilities, all it can do is send the excavation details to each local government so that they can use it when cracking down on illegal lodging facilities. The excavation details are also the result of crackdowns conducted through online monitoring only once a year.
Instead, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism appears to be pinning its hopes on Airbnb’s voluntary policy of expelling unreported accommodations. Airbnb announced on the 2nd of this month that it will expel businesses that are not reporting business after a one-year grace period.
However, this is only a voluntary measure by a private company. It is difficult to find responsible measures that the government should take. In addition, shared accommodation services are operated not only on Airbnb, but also on overseas online travel platforms (OTAs) such as Booking.com and Agoda, and even on social networking services (SNS).
It is also true that due to the insufficient shared accommodation system, there is a strong tendency for shared accommodations, which are widely accepted overseas, to be defined as ‘illegal’ in Korea. If the revitalization of shared accommodations was blocked by a system and made illegal, thorough management and supervision would have been necessary, but that part is being neglected.
As the number of foreign tourists visiting Korea has increased recently, the importance of ‘shared accommodation’ is emerging.
Lodging establishments in Seoul are suffering from a shortage of rooms as the number of foreigners visiting Korea, which plummeted to 900,000 during the COVID-19 period, rapidly increased to 10 million last year. Additionally, as the government aims to attract 30 million foreign visitors by 2027, shared accommodations that utilize current resources are important.
A system that can proactively manage shared accommodation is needed. Let’s look at nearby Japan. Japan boldly enacts a new guesthouse law in 2017 to legalize shared accommodations. This was a decision to solve the hotel shortage problem as the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan exceeded 24.03 million in 2016.
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