Seoul City aims to become 5th most visited destination

Seoul City announced on Friday a new tourism scheme to increase sightseeing infrastructure and attractions in an attempt to bring in 10 million more visitors and become the fifth city in the world in tourist numbers by 2018.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon announced the new plan in the annual general meeting of Seoul International Business Advisory Council.

Seoul will transform 25 historical spots into major sightseeing attractions and build about 77,600 more accommodations in the next five years, according to the plan. Tourist information and tour previews will be available via smartphone applications. Various languages including Arabic and Thai will be provided on the official website.

Seoul will also compensate overcharged foreign tourists starting from November. Once the tourist police receive and confirm a report, the Seoul Tourism Association will reimburse the visitor after a review.

In an effort to stimulate the MICE business, the city will expand infrastructure for exhibitions and conventions by three times to 180,000 square meters and subsidize institutions for up to 100 million won ($94,135) when hosting international meetings.

As of last year, around 10 million people visited Korea and 80 percent of them toured Seoul, making it the 11th most visited city in the world.

By Lee Hyun-jeong  (rene@heraldcorp.com)