Gyeonggi Province Confirms Competitiveness of Representative International MICE Events in the With-Corona Era

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hoon] Gyeonggi Province held a performance report meeting on the 18th at the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization conference room to reflect on the results and significance of this year's 'Region-Specialized MICE Project.'

Previously, the province conducted a municipal and county competition for the 'Gyeonggi Province Region-Specialized MICE Project,' which discovers and fosters international conferences on topics related to promising or specialized local industries, in April and selected three events: ▲Goyang International Destination Competitiveness Forum (August 25-26) ▲Seongnam International Medical Tourism Convention (September 9-11) ▲Suwon World Heritage City Forum (September 24-25). MICE refers to tourism industries including conferences, incentive travel, conventions, and exhibitions and events.

The province supported successful event operations by providing subsidies following consultation at three stages—pre-event, on-site, and post-event—by dedicated consulting groups composed of experts from the private sector and academia for each event.

At the performance report meeting, each event received attention for proposing operational directions for MICE events following COVID-19 by holding them in a hybrid online-offline format or entirely online amid social distancing measures.

Additionally, the events drew praise for producing meaningful results, including inviting Jeffrey Sachs, a leading scholar in sustainable development and UN special adviser, as a speaker, operating ESG (environment, social, governance) eco-friendly campaigns, and strengthening international conference expertise for each event.

Choi Yong-hoon, director of the Tourism Division of Gyeonggi Province, stated, "As uncertainty across society increases and MICE event formats diversify, it becomes increasingly important to foster MICE events that use region-based industries as content. This is both the competitiveness of the region and the competitiveness of South Korea's MICE industry. From next year, we will more actively contribute to strengthening Gyeonggi Province's MICE competitiveness through independent discovery of competitive homegrown MICE events," he said.

Meanwhile, 'NanoKorea (KINTEX)' and 'Ansan Korean Materials and Surface Technology Conference,' which were previously selected for the Gyeonggi Province Region-Specialized MICE Project, have been selected for K-Convention announced by the Korea Tourism Organization this year and are emerging as international events beyond regional boundaries.