Busan Posts MICE Reports Recovery After MERS

May 10, 2016

South Korea’s MICE industry was significantly affected by MERS last year. According to the Busan Tourism Organization (BTO), in Busan, from May to July 2015, incentive events dropped from 54 to 26, seven international business events were cancelled and 200 domestic business events were cancelled or delayed.

After the South Korean government issued an official all-clear declaration in October last year, Busan’s inbound business events posted a significant recovery. Busan has subsequently hosted several high profile business events, such as the 2015 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry 45th World Chemistry Congress and 2015 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry 48th General Assembly in August; ASEAN +3 Task Force Meeting and IT Expo Busan 2015 in September; IEEE Sensors 2015, 25th International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference and G-STAR 2015 Global Game Conference in November.

According to Peter Jang, Chief Marketing Officer with BTO, European and North American associations brought significant numbers of meetings back to Busan and major source markets for inbound corporate meetings and incentive travel (China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore) performed well in recent months.

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