Following close on the heels of the Seoul International Travel Mart, the Korea MICE Expo was held just two months later in November 2010.  These two events, together with other related conferences and exhibitions such as the Medical Tourism expo and international gift fair held in Seoul within the same period, reflected Korea’s aggressive push for the MICE and Tourism markets.

Korea may not have the price advantage and the exotic factor of its competitors in Southeast Asia, but it certainly has excellent MICE hotels, venues and facilities, shopping and entertainment, supported by world number-one ranking airport, advanced traffic and transport systems.  Major destinations such as Seoul, Busan and Jeju are offering attractive incentive and reward schemes to attract more MICE groups, while less well-known regions such as Daegu and Daejeon are also developing hotels and high-tech convention facilities.  Apart from these, the many palaces and museums are also excellent venues for dinner and networking functions.  In fact, the National Museum of Korea recently hosted a function for the G20 meeting in November 2010.

Although Korea is not lacking in traditional culture, it has in recent years been developing many new performing arts shows for locals and visiting tourists alike.  The Koreans are quite creative as they were able to make use of anything from kitchenware, drums, martial arts and street dancing, and transform them into hour-long performances.  There is no language barrier as the performances were mostly physical skills-based and non-verbal.  Hence, MICE organizers can have a wider choice of entertainment to offer to delegates, instead of the standard traditional songs and dances.

Despite being famous for technology innovativeness and creativity in arts, the Koreans can be a little rigid when it comes to managing events.  Last minute changes and surprises are norms in organizing MICE events, hence onsite staff need to be able to react to unforeseen circumstances with some degree of flexibility.  This is perhaps one of the areas where there is room for improvement.