With borders reopening world wide and vacationers flocking to world locations, curiosity in touring to Seoul continues to skyrocket. In line with Airbnb, Seoul was the fourth most searched journey vacation spot within the first and third quarters of 2022, with many vacationers wanting to go to the Korean capital as quickly as worldwide journey resumed. Ok-pop, Ok-culture, and the recognition of Korean meals and historical past have all contributed to this rise in worldwide curiosity.
Seoul Metropolitan Authorities
Nevertheless, Seoul is just not solely famend as a vacationer vacation spot. Town additionally boasts an astonishing monitor report for efficiently internet hosting worldwide occasions. It has performed host to the Summer season Olympics, FIFA World Cup and worldwide summits, bolstering its popularity as a world-class MICE vacation spot.
What Is MICE And Why Is It Essential?
MICE stands for “conferences, incentives, conventions and exhibitions.” A profitable MICE business revolves round a metropolis’s potential to host large-scale worldwide occasions. It requires the institution of infrastructure to carry conferences and conferences, in addition to lodging, transportation and vacationer services for visitors.
In his inaugural speech, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon introduced that he aimed to make Seoul one of many world’s high 5 cities. And the MICE business will play a serious function on this. MICE initiatives put cities on the worldwide stage via their intensive advertising and marketing and promotional campaigns. They expose a metropolis’s branding to world audiences and end in constructive ripple results that may lengthen to the tourism, enterprise and political arenas.
From an financial perspective, the significance of the MICE business merely can’t be overstated. In line with the Korea Tourism Group, the per capita consumption expenditure of MICE individuals is roughly 1.8 occasions larger than that of normal vacationers. In the meantime, the variety of jobs created by the MICE business in Korea is larger than the shipbuilding, automotive and semiconductor industries.
Seoul Metropolitan Authorities
Seoul’s MICE Success Story Regardless of The Pandemic
Seoul’s popularity as a high MICE metropolis has frequently grown annually. Town was not too long ago chosen because the “Finest MICE Metropolis of 2022″ on the GT Examined Reader Survey Awards. The awards—held in Los Angeles—have been organized by journey journal International Traveler and winners have been picked by the journal’s 300,000 subscribers.
It’s the eighth consecutive yr that Seoul has acquired this accolade, which is an astounding achievement, particularly because the metropolis has needed to take care of pandemic restrictions over the past three years. Whereas many worldwide occasions have been canceled or delayed, Seoul managed to maintain its MICE business by increasing its assist for on-line and hybrid occasions and establishing a MICE quarantine system to make sure that in-person occasions might proceed safely.
Due to the federal government’s assist of the MICE business, the variety of conferences held in Seoul truly elevated in the course of the pandemic. The Union of Worldwide Associations’ Worldwide Conferences Statistics Report, which ranks world cities based on the variety of worldwide conferences held annually, ranked Seoul in second place in 2021—with 265 conferences. Seoul had beforehand been in third place within the world rankings since 2015.
By efficiently steering town via the pandemic years, Seoul is poised to go from energy to energy within the close to future, particularly with the anticipated restoration of the worldwide MICE sector and the return of worldwide journey. In line with monetary companies firm American Categorical, the worldwide MICE sector is predicted to recuperate over the following one to 2 years.
Seoul Metropolitan Authorities
The Future Of MICE In Seoul
Seoul is in a first-rate place to realize additional success in the course of the MICE sector’s restoration interval and has been working laborious to draw upcoming occasions and conferences to town. In 2023, the federal government has allotted 7.4 billion received (US$6 million) in the direction of improvement in key areas, together with worldwide conferences, and it’s accelerating the creation of three MICE clusters within the metropolis. The MICE clusters will present much-needed, extra infrastructure to accommodate extra large-scale occasions and convention visitors.
With Seoul being ready to host extra MICE occasions, town has been lively in promotional exercise and bidding for worldwide conferences. Final October, the Seoul Tourism Group (STO) showcased on the IMEX exhibition in Las Vegas, attracting world audiences and convention organizers via cultural shows and occasions.
As well as, town not too long ago introduced the profitable bidding for 2 main upcoming conferences: the 2025 Worldwide Political Science Affiliation (IPSA) World Congress and the 2025 Econometric Society World Congress. The IPSA World Congress, additionally nicknamed the UN Common Meeting of Political Science, is predicted to deliver 3,000 political scientists from 80 nations to town in 2025. In the meantime, the Econometric Society World Congress will appeal to round 4,000 economists, together with Nobel laureates from world wide.
As a results of town’s promotional efforts and funding within the MICE business, a complete of 98 worldwide occasions will probably be held in Seoul by 2028, with about 150,000 guests—together with 70,000 foreigners—estimated to go to town for MICE occasions. Such success is a testomony to town’s resilience, planning, infrastructure and assist for the MICE business.
After weathering the storm all through the pandemic, Seoul’s standing as a world metropolis is simply anticipated to rise as worldwide journey resumes and face-to-face occasions develop into the norm.
