SEOUL Metropolitan Government has produced a master plan for Seoul’s MICE industry in order to strengthen the city’s position internationally as Asia ascends as a meetings destination.
Under the master plan, divided into phases, large areas of meetings infrastructure will be developed between 2014 and 2018 to ramp up the city’s meetings capacity. This includes the upcoming launch of Dongdaedmun Design Plaza and a large convention centre next to Seoul Station, set to open in 2014 and 2018 respectively.
These openings will boost the South Korean capital’s meetings capacity from 64,000m2 to 103,000m2 and create a concentration of convention centres and five-star hotels in the city centre in the first phase of development.
During the second phase of development, another group of large-scale MICE zones will go under the knife. A full block of governmental buildings in the south-east region of Seoul directly opposite Coex will be reworked, as will the nearby Olympic sports stadiums in the Jamsil area, to bring the city’s total meetings capacity to 18,600 pax by 2020.
Seoul will also add services, improve and promote lesser-known venues in the city and create a framework for site inspections for corporate and incentive meetings to include top South Korean businesses such as Samsung Electronics, LG, Jinro and more.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government will work with Seoul Tourism Organization, academic institutions and top MICE employers to create programmes to train local MICE professionals, besides widening the scope of the Seoul Convention Bureau.
