seoul convetion bureau

300k subscribers of Global Traveler selected Seoul as “Best MICE City”

Recognized for Seoul's active support for the MICE industry and overseas attraction marketing

In the “Global Traveler Tested Reader Survey Award 2023” hosted by the global travel media Global Traveler, Seoul has been selected as the “2023 Best MICE City” for nine consecutive years since 2015, reaffirming its status as a prominent global business events destination.

Global Traveler is a luxury business travel magazine in the American region, with a monthly print circulation of 550,000 subscribers and an online readership of up to two million views per month. Each year, Global Traveler conducts a vote among its subscribers, including over 300,000 professionals in the tourism and MICE industries, to select the best in various categories such as MICE cities, airlines, and hotels.

The city of Seoul and the Seoul Tourism Organization (STO) have actively supported the MICE industry to transform global interest in Seoul into MICE demands. Through the tailored support program “PLUS SEOUL,” they have provided support in four MICE sectors, including international organizations, exhibitions, corporate meetings, and incentives. Based on proactive attraction support, they successfully secured 24 international conferences in Seoul this year, including the world's largest robotics-related international conference, the “2027 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (10,000 attendees),” and the prestigious international conference in economics, the “2025 World Congress of the Econometric Society (4,000 attendees)”.

Through additional funding and concentrated efforts of Seoul in pre-inspection for dominating the rapidly growing corporate meetings and incentive market, executives from prestigious global companies, including India's largest private bank (3,257 attendees) and a global insurance company in Indonesia (2,000 attendees), have chosen Seoul as incentive destinations. In November 2023, the STO's performance in supporting corporate meetings and incentive groups surpassed the pre-COVID-19 peak in 2019 by 15%.

To enhance awareness and favorability of Seoul as a business events destination and uncover potential MICE demand, the city and STO have pursued aggressive local promotions in 11 major cities worldwide. Specifically, they have participated in key global MICE exhibitions such as IMEX Frankfurt, IMEX Las Vegas, ITB Asia, conducting business consultations and Seoul MICE briefings.

Seoul has been honored as the “Best Leisure City in Asia” for the first time at the “2023 Leisure Lifestyle Awards” hosted by Global Traveler. Additionally, it has secured the title of “Favorite Worldwide City” for the second consecutive year at Trazee Travel's “2023 The Trazees,” establishing itself as a leading destination in Asia that encompasses both tourism and MICE.

Ki-yon Kil, the president and CEO of the STO, stated, “Seoul will continue to spare no effort in providing tailored support for the successful attraction and hosting of MICE events in the future. The city will actively collaborate with the industry to provide high-quality MICE services”.