Travel Tech Asia 2026 runs 21 to 23 October at the Sands Expo & Convention Centre (Level 1) in Singapore, with more than 50 exhibitors, ITB Asia said. Named exhibitors include Agoda, Airalo, DerbySoft, DragonPass, Flywire, Rakuten Travel Xchange, SiteMinder and Trip.com. The Korean Tourism Startup Centre is on the list too.

The new feature this year is a hosted buyer programme, which expects about 100 technology buyers: CIOs, CTOs and procurement leads from hotels, travel agencies and DMCs. Darren Seah, Executive Director of Messe Berlin Asia Pacific, said: “Technology has become a key driver of innovation and growth across the travel industry.” The show sits within ITB Asia 2026, which expects more than 18,000 attendees from 132+ countries and territories. Trade visitors register at webreg.biz/itbasia-2026.

The Korean delegation at Travel Tech Asia 2026

KTO, the Korean state tourism body, runs startup centres in Singapore, Tokyo and Bangkok. KTSC Singapore was established in August 2022 and added 13 new partners in 2026, among them Mastercard and Scape. Min Byung-sun, head of KTO’s Tourism Industry Division, has described Singapore as a city-state densely packed with networks of tourism, finance, MICE, hotels and resorts, and global companies, which suits the testing of localised services.

For a hotel group or DMC, that makes the Korean stand a pre-screened supplier shelf. Each company has already pitched to a Singapore audience, and several have a government-backed route to pilots.

What the programme has produced

KTO selected 30 startups for its 2026 Tourism Global Challenge from 209 applicants, a ratio of 6.9 to 1, Seoul Economic Daily reported. Each receives up to 200 million won (about US$145,000) in commercialisation funding. The programme began in 2020 and has supported 147 companies abroad, with Japan, the US, Europe and Southeast Asia as target markets.

The earlier results are commercial ones. The Service Platform took 1 billion won from AirTrip. Tripbtoz signed a 2 billion won contract with Archipelago. Haenyeo’s Kitchen set up a Singapore subsidiary.

Korean travel startups in Singapore: the 2026 cohorts

Two Singapore events this year put 16 Korean startups in front of local buyers and investors. The KTSC Travel Tech Showcase on 11 June, run by StartupX, KTO and KTSC, pitched eight: Alicorn, DIVE IN, DOWHAT, FAIRPASS, Globaleur, MANMANHAN, Prinker Korea and RedSlippers. The 2026 KTSC Demo Day on 20 August, run by KTO and Kiaora Ventures, pitched eight more: Go2Joy, LOYQU, BLF, Ohmyhotel & Co., AllTheStreet, ND Soft, CrossHub and K-Style Hub.

Sorted by what a buyer needs, the list reads as follows.

• Hotel operations: DOWHAT, a hotel operations DX/AX platform; Alicorn, which automates hotel and MICE venues with AI; Go2Joy, which sells hotel rooms by the hour; and Ohmyhotel & Co., which sells rooms B2B and B2C.
• MICE: FAIRPASS handles event registration and badges, and Alicorn covers venue automation.
• Agentic AI: Globaleur builds agentic AI travel recommendations and commerce.
• Language and payments: ND Soft offers AI multilingual interpretation, and CrossHub makes the Travel Pass prepaid payment platform for foreign visitors.

Korean tourism startups including Alicorn and Gadget Korea were first-time exhibitors at Travel Tech Asia 2025, according to TTG Asia. Their return to the floor is the pattern the centre is building on.

Money and momentum

KTO’s 2026 Tourism Global Business Day in Seoul drew 270+ delegates and 20 VC firms from six markets: the US, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong. The day produced 330+ one-on-one meetings, the Korea Times reported. CrossHub got a US$100,000 investment commitment from ThinkZone Ventures.

Kim Gwan-mi, director of KTO’s Tourism Business Support Division, said: “Our goal is to work alongside these founders directly in the field to help foster Korea’s first true tourism unicorns.”

For organisers

Kim Gwan-mi and Min Byung-sun are the two KTO officials to watch. Kim runs the division that backs founders in the field, and Min’s division shapes where the agency places them, with Singapore the current hub. Sixteen Korean pitches in Singapore between June and August, and 30 Global Challenge winners now being placed abroad, point to a supply of Korean founders who want stage time at APAC events. Organisers planning startup pitch sessions can look to these two offices for that pipeline.

Key takeaway

We think hotel, DMC and MICE buyers should make the trip, particularly those who register for the hosted buyer programme, because the Korean Tourism Startup Centre puts a vetted shortlist of hotel-ops, event and payments suppliers in one place. If only one day is possible, spend it on the Korean stand and ask which of the 16 Singapore-pitched companies are on site that week. Airlines and OTAs should check CrossHub and Globaleur against their inbound-payment and AI-commerce roadmaps before they fly.

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