Check campground registration standards before committing to construction
This calculator helps owners planning a Korean campground compare land, building floors, tent and vehicle pitches, safety equipment and liability coverage before paying for design or earthworks.
It covers general and vehicle campground standards under the Tourism Promotion Act, with a separate numerical check for forest campgrounds.
A plan that exceeds the applicable building boundary may require redesign even when the site looks spacious.
Korea-based 2026 rules
The Tourism Promotion Act, Enforcement Decree and Enforcement Rule use the versions effective October 29, 2026, checked November 2, 2026.
The forest decree version is effective July 28, 2026.
Results do not grant registration, development or building permits, fire-safety approval or insurance acceptance.
Land-use zoning, access, sewage arrangements and disaster exposure can change the feasibility of the same plot.
Use the exported checklist with the designer and local tourism authority before confirming construction contracts.
Startup returns, earthwork prices and insurance premiums require separate information and are outside this calculation.
Understand the area inputs and avoid counting space twice
Total and net camping area
Total area is the campground area used in the registration plan.
Net camping area excludes roads and communal facilities that cannot be assigned to pitches.
Entering the entire owned plot as net camping space can overstate capacity.
Combined building floor area
Include applicable buildings such as toilets and showers, not only the management office.
Ask the designer how the statutory floor-area measure applies; do not assume it is identical to another building-area measure.
The tool does not classify glamping structures or caravans as buildings automatically.
Ordinary pitches and provided units
Do not enter the same glamping unit or towable trailer again in the ordinary tent or vehicle pitch counts.
Enter a separate reservation for their footprint, gaps and paths.
Include that reservation in net camping area; the calculation deducts it once.
Confirmed, not met or unknown
Keep unverified site conditions and policy wording as unknown.
The default example and a numeric zero do not confirm actual compliance.
Blank, invalid or inconsistent numeric inputs stop results and report export until corrected.
The 15 m² and 50 m² pitch rules
Annex 1, item 4(c) of the Tourism Enforcement Decree requires at least 15 m² per tent for a general campground and at least 50 m² per vehicle for a vehicle campground.
Vehicle camping space includes parking and adjacent camping equipment.
Mixed is a planning option here, not a third statutory business category.
Allocation and ceiling formulas
- Planned area = tent count × tent area + vehicle count × vehicle area + reserved provided-facility area.
- Tent ceiling = floor((net camping area − reserved area − retained vehicle-plan area) ÷ 15).
- Vehicle ceiling = floor((net camping area − reserved area − retained tent-plan area) ÷ 50).
- The design-size ceiling uses the larger of the statutory minimum and your entered pitch area as its divisor.
Floor discards the fractional part to retain whole pitches.
If the remaining area is negative, the ceiling becomes zero and excess planned area is shown separately.
The two ceilings describe alternatives on the same land; do not add them together.
Plot shape, slopes, drainage, walking routes and emergency turning space can reduce actual capacity.
The calculator does not derive an approved maximum glamping or caravan count from the 15/50 m² divisions.
Building limits are strictly below the boundary
Campground area and building floor-area boundaries by Korean land-use zone| Application | Total area | Combined building floors |
|---|
| Ordinary application | Other siting rules remain | Less than 10% of total |
| Conservation management / conservation green | Less than 10,000 m² | Less than 300 m² AND less than 10% of total |
For an 8,000 m² site, 10% is 800 m².
In a conservation management zone, the simultaneous 300 m² condition makes 300 m² the stricter boundary.
If planned floors total 850 m², reducing them by exactly 550 m² leaves 300 m² and still fails.
The reduction must be strictly more than 550 m².
A conservation-zone site of exactly 10,000 m² also fails that numerical condition.
Comparisons use original values rather than rounded display values, so leave practical design headroom.
Closed-school and seasonal exceptions have different conditions
Qualifying closed-school property
Qualifying closed-school use without increasing the existing site area can engage the ordinary 10% exception.
In conservation zones, the numerical exception additionally requires no new buildings or extensions and no new or widened road to the entrance.
Closed-school status alone does not permit arbitrary building or road works.
The remaining conservation sewerage, landscaping and slope-protection requirements still need review.
Short operation at a beach or amusement park
Annex 1(3) addresses statutory beaches or amusement parks operating for no more than four months yearly without land alteration for registration.
All three conditions are necessary for the numerical exception; ordinary seasonal trading alone is insufficient.
The 15/50 m² pitch rules, emergency access, facility availability, safety, hygiene and liability coverage still require confirmation.
Your checkboxes state assumptions; they do not prove eligibility.
Take evidence of the property, existing area and proposed works to the local tourism authority before relying on the exception in a contract.
The results retain an authority-review item even when the numerical exception is applied.
Extinguishers, alarms, dedicated RCDs and 3 m spacing
Tourism Enforcement Rule Annex 7 says at least one extinguisher per two tent locations or 100 m².
This tool rounds each count upward, takes the larger shared estimate, then adds equipment for provided units and one ash-handling location.
The sum is a conservative purchasing budget without overlap credits, not a certified statutory minimum.
Confirm interpretation, covered area, ratings and placement with the local fire and registration authorities.
Operator-installed facilities provided to guests
- Each qualifying camping structure or towable trailer needs an extinguisher, standalone smoke alarm, carbon monoxide alarm, dedicated RCD and an emergency torch inside.
- Provided facilities must be at least 3 m apart; generous unit floor space alone does not establish that gap.
- Applicable tent materials need flame-retardant performance and an easily escapable entrance.
Wood and pellet stoves must not be installed or used inside provided facilities.
- The enclosed movable-tent electrical exception requires RCD protection, certified/verified electrical products and a combined load no higher than 1,100 W.
It does not permit flames.
Do not count one shared breaker as a dedicated breaker for multiple units.
Also check first aid, an emergency broadcast system or a megaphone rated at least 10 W with at least 250 m audible range, evacuation notices, backup power or batteries, and emergency torches.
Review the full Annex 7: staff present during opening, safety education at least yearly, inspections at least monthly, half-yearly submissions and records retained at least two years.
Applicable drinking-water supply arrangements require annual water-quality testing.
Check the full insurance schedule as well as top-grade limits
Registered campground operators must arrange liability insurance or qualifying mutual coverage before starting business for guest losses from disasters or safety accidents at the campground.
Article 18(7) specifies death coverage within KRW 100 million per person and property loss within KRW 100 million per event.
When death loss is below KRW 20 million, the amount is set at KRW 20 million.
These conditions do not promise a flat KRW 100 million for every accident.
Per-person injury and residual-disability limits for all 14 grades under Annexes 3-2 and 3-3| Grade | Injury (KRW) | Residual disability (KRW) |
|---|
| 1 | 20,000,000 | 100,000,000 |
| 2 | 10,000,000 | 90,000,000 |
| 3 | 10,000,000 | 80,000,000 |
| 4 | 9,000,000 | 70,000,000 |
| 5 | 9,000,000 | 60,000,000 |
| 6 | 5,000,000 | 50,000,000 |
| 7 | 5,000,000 | 40,000,000 |
| 8 | 2,400,000 | 30,000,000 |
| 9 | 2,400,000 | 22,500,000 |
| 10 | 1,600,000 | 18,800,000 |
| 11 | 1,600,000 | 15,000,000 |
| 12 | 800,000 | 12,500,000 |
| 13 | 800,000 | 10,000,000 |
| 14 | 800,000 | 6,300,000 |
Adequate top-grade entries do not confirm the remaining grades or coverage wording.
Article 18(8) requires combined-event terms: injury followed by death adds the relevant injury and death amounts; injury followed by residual disability adds injury and disability amounts.
Death after a disability payment also involves the statutory deduction for the relevant loss after death.
Medical grading, actual losses, exclusions and premiums require separate assessment.
Disposition order and substitute surcharges require separate review
Basic campground dispositions under Tourism Enforcement Decree Annex 2| Same violation | First | Second | Third | Fourth |
|---|
| Missing liability coverage | Correction | 1-month suspension | 2-month suspension | Cancellation |
| Safety/hygiene or standards no longer met after registration | Correction | 15-day suspension | 1-month suspension | Cancellation |
Annex 2 uses prior dispositions for the same violation within the last year, comparing the disposition date with the later detection date.
Use the highest qualifying prior order, not lifetime occurrences.
Refusal of a new registration differs from sanctions after a registered business ceases meeting standards.
Under Act Article 37, the authority may replace suspension with a surcharge under the statutory inconvenience/public-interest conditions.
The safety/hygiene base of KRW 2 million, standards base of KRW 800,000 and the decree Article 34 adjustment range of 50% are references, not automatic payment choices.
This tool does not calculate a substitute amount for missing insurance or turn cancellation into a cash payment.
Unregistered campground operation separately carries up to two years of imprisonment or KRW 20 million in fines under Article 83(2); both can apply.
Forest campgrounds use a separate set of limits
Forest Recreation Enforcement Decree Article 9-3(2) is shown independently of the tourism checks.
For development by someone other than the national or a local government, maximum forest alteration is A × 30% when area A is at most 10,000 m²; 3,000 + (A − 10,000) × 5% when 10,000 < A ≤ 50,000 m²; and A × 10% when A exceeds 50,000 m².
National or local government development uses A × 10% throughout.
Building floors must be strictly below A × 10%, and buildings must have no more than two storeys.
The 3,000 m² ceiling is not the total development ceiling
Act Article 20(3) concerns land surrounded by the development forest and considered necessary for the plan.
Decree Article 8 limits that included non-forest land to the smaller of 10% of development area and 3,000 m²; it does not allow arbitrary adjacent land to be added.
It does not cap the whole campground at 3,000 m² either.
A private-developer example with A = 30,000 m² has alteration up to 4,000 m², building floors strictly below 3,000 m² and included non-forest land up to 3,000 m².
Ask the forestry authority about excluded pre-existing paths, development-plan approval, other forest restrictions and concurrent Tourism Promotion Act registration.
Step-by-step use and a worked design example
- Verify zoning, surveyed area and building measurements from official land-use records and design drawings.
- Separate net camping space from roads and communal facilities, and identify the reservation for provided facilities.
- Enter ordinary pitch plans, unit counts, gaps and installed equipment counts.
- Compare site conditions, all four policy covers and full wording; preserve unknowns.
- Save the TXT report or print both the work and review lists for the designer, authority and insurer.
Fictional 8,000 m² conservation-management site
With 3,000 m² net area, 40 tent pitches of 30 m², zero vehicle pitches and 600 m² reserved for four glamping units and two trailers, planned use is 1,800 m² and remaining area is 1,200 m².
Retaining the zero-vehicle plan gives a statutory tent ceiling of 160, or 80 using the entered 30 m² pitch size.
Retaining the 40-tent plan gives a vehicle ceiling of 24, or 20 using the entered 60 m² vehicle pitch size.
These are alternatives, not two allocations to fill simultaneously.
The shared extinguisher estimate is max(ceil(44 ÷ 2), ceil(1,800 ÷ 100)) = 22.
Adding six provided-unit extinguishers and one ash-handling extinguisher gives a procurement reference of 29.
Each of the other four unit-specific equipment types is compared against six units.
The 850 m² building plan needs reduction below 300 m², while unverified insurance and operations remain separate review items.
Frequently asked questions
Does sufficient land area guarantee registration?
No.
Area division leaves siting, access, utilities, safety, building approvals and local registration review unresolved.
Can building floors equal exactly 10%?
No.
The rule is strictly below the boundary.
Conservation zones also require less than 300 m² and total area below 10,000 m².
Should glamping units be counted again as ordinary tents?
No.
This tool uses separate provided-unit counts and reserved area to avoid duplication.
Statutory facility and business classifications require local review.
Are 29 extinguishers the certified minimum?
No.
That is the conservative procurement estimate in the example.
Confirm wording, coverage area, ratings and placement locally.
Are sufficient top-grade policy limits enough?
No.
Check all injury and disability grades, the death minimum, combined-event provisions, validity and scope of coverage.
Can I pay a surcharge instead of closing?
The authority decides under statutory conditions.
It is not an automatic option for the operator.
Does the forest result replace tourism registration?
No.
Review forestry development approval, related land requirements and concurrent tourism registration separately.
Which application documents should I prepare?
Prepare the business plan, floor/layout plans, facility inventory, permit evidence and electrical pre-use certificate.
Check applicable LPG completion evidence and drinking-water test results for groundwater or other non-tap sources.
Official sources and future checks
Checked 2026-11-02 through the National Law Information OPEN API.
Sources: Tourism Promotion Act MST285653, Articles 4, 9, 20-2, 35, 37 and 83; Enforcement Decree MST291395, Annexes 1–3 and Article 34; Enforcement Rule MST291551, Articles 2, 18 and 28-2 and Annexes 3-2, 3-3 and 7; Forest Recreation Enforcement Decree MST288293, Articles 8 and 9-3; Forest Recreation Act MST267329, Article 20(3).
The forest Act version is effective 2025-06-21.
The registration annex itself was amended 2026-08-04 and the safety/hygiene annex itself 2025-12-29.
Recheck amendments, actual zoning and measurements, building classification, exception evidence, extinguisher interpretation and placement, policy wording, qualifying disposition history, discretion and forest approvals.
The applicable law and site facts may change between using this tool and applying or opening.
Share a revised design checklist before signing
Send the work and review lists to the architect and local tourism authority.
Use separate tools for land-development screening and business returns.