South Korea Maintains Top Ranks in Global Meetings Statistics Reports

 

South Korea remains world’s number 1 destination for international meetings for two consecutive years with 1,297 meetings hosted in 2017 – this is according to the latest international meetings statistics report by the Union of International Associations (UIA).

 

Based on the report, Korea accounts for 12.6% of the 10,786 total international meetings recorded by the UIA, reflecting a 3.1% growth in the global market share from the previous year. Furthermore, in the city rankings, the capital city Seoul made it to the top 3 with 688 meetings, following Singapore (877 meetings) and Brussels (763 meetings) respectively.

 

Meanwhile, Korea also maintained 13^thplace on the latest International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) World rankings with 279 qualified meetings hosted in 2017. The following countries are Australia (14th), Sweden (15th), Brazil (16th), and Switzerland (17th). Among the Asia countries, South Korea ranks 3rd place after Japan (1st) and China (2nd).

 

After its recent success in hosting two highly significant events, 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and North-South Korea summit, Korea expects an increase in interest and demand to host business events in the country.

 

Especially, the PyeongChang Winter Olympics has bolstered confidence to Gangwon-do province as a MICE destination, starting with the PATA Annual Summit 2018 which was held in the Olympic city on May 17.

 

In line with this, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) is promoting and developing more tour programs to the demilitarized zone (DMZ), in response to the growing demand sparked by the inter-Korean summit. More so, it has been found out in a recent study conducted by KTO that a half-day visit to the DMZ area was the most popular tour among foreign tourists.

 

 

Finally, Korea's largest business events tradeshow 'Korea MICE Expo' was successfully held last June 13 (Wed) – 15 (Fri) in Songdo Convensia, Incheon. Approximately 3,000 people attended the event, including 266 exhibiting local suppliers exhibiting for 381 booths, and over 250 domestic and foreign buyers. Under the theme ‘Hallyu meets MICE’, Korea sought to diversify its portfolio to attract more international conventions and incentive tours from all over the world by introducing Korean pop culture in music, movies, drama, and more. During the event, K-pop group Shinee was also present and was appointed as Korea’s first Honorary Ambassador of MICE.

The growing interest in Korea as a meetings destination is also reflected by the increasing number of business events expected to be hosted in the country in the following years, this includes the 2019 IDF World Diabetes Congress, 2019 International Congress for Conservation Biology, 2019 International Renewable Energy Conference, 17^th Asiana Geosciences Society Meeting, and the 2021 IEEE International Symposium for Circuits and Systems.

 

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