The 14th annual Korea MICE Expo at Seoul’s COEX convention center here saw its 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 26-27 event attracted some 300 buyers and 200 exhibiting organizations to promote the meetings, incentives, conventions and expositions offerings of South Korea. According to organizers, more than 4,600 people attended the show.
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 that “Seoul is that sweet flower, with a great convention product, and you are the butterflies that flew in.”
Seoul has certainly fluttered about on the world stage in the past few years when it comes to the popularity of its cultural imports, namely K-pop singer and rapper PSY, whose Gangnam Style video was an international sensation and fashion trend-setter.
Indeed, COEX is located in the Gangnam District, the name of which translates to “south of the river.” With its wide boulevards, new high-rises and high-end retail, Gangnam more closely resembles the posher areas of Los Angeles than it does the northern portion of the city across the Han River.
But while Gangnam gets all the glory, the northern part of Seoul has been busy, too.
New entrants on 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.
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.
On the national MICE scene, the southeastern city of Daegu is gearing up to welcome the new Gyeongju Convention Center next year, and for sheer jaw-dropping enormity, an entirely new city is rising from land reclaimed from the sea just outside of Incheon, about 40 miles southwest of Seoul and eight miles from Incheon International Airport.
Songdo International Business District, described as a “corporate United Nations” due to the major companies moving in, is a “Smart City” that features showpiece skyscrapers designed by the world’s top architects, along with its own major convention center.
