Seoul, which is fostering the MICE industry, achieved 6th place in the world for hosting international conferences among over 1,500 cities globally.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Tourism Foundation announced that they hosted a total of 124 international conferences last year, an increase of 21 compared to the previous year, according to the 2024 international conference market analysis released by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).
Seoul ranked 6th in the world and 2nd in the Asia-Pacific region. According to the city, this result reflects a four-place rise in the city’s international conference hosting performance compared to the previous year, marking the highest rank since records began in 2005.
The rankings for major cities are ▲1st Vienna, Austria (154) ▲2nd Lisbon, Portugal (153) ▲3rd Singapore (144) ▲4th Barcelona, Spain (142) ▲5th Prague, Czech Republic (131).
In particular, Seoul ranked 4th in the world for hosting medical conferences. The city was also recognized as the best MICE city for 10 consecutive years by the premium U.S. business tourism media 'Global Traveler', and has been inducted into the 'Hall of Fame'.
In the future, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Tourism Foundation plan to invest 9.5 billion won this year to strategically foster the MICE industry. Additionally, to expand exhibition and convention facilities, they aim to create a MICE cluster in the Jamsil Sports Complex area and the northern Seoul Station area by 2031.
Gil Gi-yeon, CEO of the Seoul Tourism Foundation, said, “We will continue to enhance our competitiveness in the global market based on Seoul's differentiated MICE assets.”
Koo Jong-won, the Director of the Tourism and Sports Bureau of Seoul, noted, “Achieving 6th place in international conference hosting in the world MICE market, which is showing a remarkable annual growth rate of 8.9%, has secured our international competitiveness,” and “We will use this ranking as a stepping stone to promote the attractive city of Seoul worldwide.”