SEOUL, South Korea
The 14th annual Korea MICE Expo is underway at Seoul’s COEX convention center, with the number of international hosted-buyer attendees up 52 percent over last year’s attendance, according to the Korea National Tourism Organization.
In total, the June 25-27 event is expected to draw some 300 buyers and 200 exhibiting organizations to promote the meetings, incentives, conventions and expositions offerings of South Korea.
According to recent statistics from the Union of International Associations, Seoul is the fifth most popular incentives destination in the world–rising from the position of 11th only three years ago–and held 563 conventions last year.
Referencing a Korean proverb that states it takes a sweet flower to attract butterflies, Maureen O’Crowley, vice president of the Seoul Tourism Organization, told the audience at the MICE Expo’s opening dinner, “Seoul is that sweet flower, with a great convention product, and you are the butterflies that flew in.”
New entrants coming to the Seoul hospitality scene–which currently offers 155 properties and 26,000 hotel rooms–include a Conrad Hotel and the city’s second JW Marriott, which will open soon next to Seoul’s burgeoning fashion and design district, Dongdaemun Market. The property will serve the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a major exhibition center project set for a late 2013 opening.
Additionally, KORAIL–South Korea’s national rail company–is scheduled to open the Seoul Station Exhibition & Convention Center, connected to Seoul Station, in 2015.
Seoul supports the MICE market via the Seoul MICE Alliance–comprised of 113 members and established in 2011–and is the one of the world’s top seven, and one of Asia’s top five, meetings destinations, according to the Korea National Tourism Organization.
Another major meeting and convention project being constructed outside of Seoul is the Gyeongju Convention Center, which is scheduled to open in 2014 in southeastern South Korea near the major city of Daegu.
