The Korea National Tourism Organization (KNTO) said Friday that Korea Information and Communications Co. was chosen to set up and operate booking systems on 95,000 hotel rooms in the 10 cities that will host the 2002 World Cup soccer finals.

The KNTO said...out of the 10 companies that competed for the business rights, Korea Information was outstanding in information technology and tourism-related specialties.

Korea Information will sign a contract with the KNTO within this month and begin the process of establishing the booking systems next month. The systems are expected to be ready for testing in the second half of this year.

The company will also make databases on the hotels and run a support center for hotel bookings.

A KNTO spokesman said.... when the networks are launched, tourists will be able to make hotel reservations by Internet, fax and phone with the help of multilingual staff.