South Korea's New Meeting Venues and Unique Experiences

While South Korea's fitful relationship with its northern neighbor grabs all the headlines, the country is steadily adding to its meetings infrastructure, making it more of a lure for groups. That effort was on display at the Korea MICE Expo, the annual meetings and incentives event held in June in the city of Incheon, where some 300 exhibitors drew visitors to the 183,212-square-foot Songdo Convensia Convention Center.

New Event Venues and Addition

Over in Suwon, the capital of Gyeonggi-do Province, the Suwon Convention Center has 28 meeting rooms and an exhibition hall that spans nearly 90,000 square feet. Additional shopping and entertainment will debut on-site in 2020.
 
The Ulsan Exhibition and Convention Center is set to open in March 2021 in the southeastern city of Ulsan. The facility will have 86,111 square feet of exhibition space.
 
Hotels, too, are providing fresh meeting venues. This year, the 140-room Park Hotel Yeongdeungpo debuted in Seoul's Yeongdeungpo district. The property is aimed at smaller, budget-minded groups and has a business center, one meeting room and a banquet hall.

Unique Event Spaces

Incheon also is home to Paradise City, a massive hotel-and-entertainment complex that has a 1,820-person ballroom as well as multiple restaurants, a casino, a nightclub and an indoor theme park with a pedal-powered gondola ride.
 
Daegu, in the southeastern part of the country, features sites like the fashion-oriented Daegu Textile Complex, which has nine aboveground and two subterranean floors, complete with a textile museum, a business center and a hall that hosts up to 1,000 for receptions.
 
The capital city of Seoul is logically a major hub for groups. Coex, a meeting and expo center in the popular Gangnam district, has more than 387,000 square feet of exhibition space, with four halls and a 7,000-person convention hall. At the Korea House, which exudes a centuries-old ambience, guests can savor cuisine inspired by royal menus from long ago and be wowed by live performances of Simcheong, a dramatic recounting of a traditional story combined with dance. Planners also can make use of Korea House's picturesque garden, which accommodates up to 70 people.
 
For more information, contact the Korea Tourism Organization and the Korea MICE Bureau.