Running with the ball

Millions of pairs of eyes from around the world will be on South Korea this year. As co-hosts of the FIFA World Cup, 2002 will be a perfect opportunity for the country to showcase its strengths in a number of areas - from world-class sporting facilities, to tourism ideas, to conference and entertainment venues. And if the World Cup runs smoothly, the world will have noticed the destination's ability to run a large, global operation. Nevertheless, South Korea's status as a conference destination has already been confirmed, if statistics from the Union of International Associations is anything to go by, ranking the country as 24th most popular destination for international meetings and conventions in 2000. And the Korea Convention Bureau (KCB) has calculated that in the past ten years, meetings, exhibitions and events have grown at an annual average rate of 9.8%. South Korea has already been given a head start to increase this rate as more than 190 international events have already been identified between 2002 and 2009 including the 27th International Horticultural Congress and the 5th International Crop Science Congress. KCB assistant manager Mr Itae Choi is confident that despite any economic slowdown, the country can afford favourable advantages to the meeting planner. "Many Asia Pacific groups have already visited the perennial favourites of Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan but South Korea is still relatively unknown," he says. "As a result, we can offer a totally new experience. And South Korea has brand-new, state-of-the-art convention facilities for meetings of any size from ten to 20,000 participants, whether it be in a city, a resort island or in a mountain retreat.' The country's geographical diversity is certainly a strong point in its favour. The capital city, Seoul, is awash with five-star hotels all with an abundance of conference facilities. The city's most recently opened convention centre is at the 400-room Swiss Grand Hotel, located 15 minutes from City Hall and ten minutes from the principal World Cup stadium. The centre's main hall can accommodate up to 2,500 theatre-style while small to large-sized seminar and conference rooms for 50 to 1,200 are also available. These facilities will be in addtiion to the nine conference rooms within the hotel, including the ballroom with capacity for 1,200. Another hotel-based convention centre can be found at the 683-room Seoul Hilton. Within the property, the 2,368sqm convention centre can be sub-divided into five sections. Capacity ranges up to 2,500 guests and the grand ballroom and Kukwha rooms have recently been renovated to include features such as laser systems, video projection and video cameras. If one thing is clear, it is that South Korean hotel chains are keen to add that something extra as a selling point. Take the Hotel Lotte chain, for example. Its downtown Seoul property not only offers 1,486 rooms, 17 restaurants and bars and 15 meeting and banquet rooms but Asia's largest duty-free shop. And Hotel Lotte World, while on a smaller scale with 533 guestrooms, ten food and beverage outlets, six meeting rooms and a duty-free shop, next door is Lotte World Adventure, the world's largest indoor theme park. If your group is searching for a resort-style business hotel, then the Hotel Lotte's may provide the answer. Seoul has become increasingly aware, over the last few years, of just how lucrative the convention market is and is eager to lure that market to the city. Supporting this desire to boost business is world-class infrastructure which can be seen in full force at COEX, one of Asia's largest convention and exhibition facilities. Opened in May 2000 through the expansion and renovation of existing facilities, as a totally integrated convention and exhibition space, COEX includes a multi-function convention hall, an auditorium, an executive conference hall, a grand ballroom and up to 89 meeting rooms for a wide variety of meetings and events. Technological innovation is also a main criteria, with multi-lingual simultaneous translation included in some of the facilities. The entire site covers 36,027sqm including three large exhibition halls, which can be divided into ten smaller venues. It also has the benefits of two Inter-Continental hotels on site; the Grand and the COEX Intern-Continental, providing almost 2,000 rooms between them. Increasingly, however, the South Korean government has realised the strong potential presented by areas outside the capital, namely Busan and Cheju. Busan, in the south-east of the country and South Korea's second most populous city and major trading port, opened its own dedicated convention centre in May last year, known as the BEXCO, the Busan Exhibition & Convention Centre. Investment has been directed into the construction of the centre since 1995 and, located in the marina resort of Busan's Haeundae beach, is a 40-minute drive from Kimahe International Airport. Major features at the centre encompass the capacity for 5,800 theatre-style seating, video-conferencing systems and simultaneous interpretation systems in eight languages. Supporting hotel infrastructure comes in many forms, ranging from the 900-room Hotel Lotte Busan with its 11 conference halls and banquet rooms to beachside 363-room Marriott Busan located 5km from BEXCO. Also located on the beachfront is the Westin Chosun Beach. This 453-room property seats 800 in its grand ballroom and offers an additional five function rooms. Beach properties are also prevalent in Cheju, the largest island in South Korea and which is a 50-minute flight from Seoul. Overlooking the Pacific Ocean, on Chungmun Beach is the 224-rooms Hyatt Regency Cheju. Again, conference facilities are a priority for island-based hotels; the Hyatt's ballroom seats 400 theatre-style. Well-versed in hosting international conferences is the Shilla Cheju; in September lst year, the APEC TEL International Conference took place at the property and other clients have included Microsoft and the Pacific Asia Travel Association. The hotel makes up part of the Chungman Resort Complex, which is also home to the 500-room Lotte Hotel Cheju. Hotels within the complex are able to offer delegates an entire range of activities, from golf and hunting to deep-sea fishing and shopping at the duty free shop. As far as convention facilities are concerned, the Shilla property's Halla ballroom seats 900 theatre-style and provides an outdoor function area with capacity for 800 for receptions. From January 2003, delegates staying in the Chungman Resort Complex will have more choice from venues when the International Convention Center Jeju (ICC) opens. The 3,500 seating capacity classroom-style in the main hall can be divided into a variety of configurations and there will be 15 meeting rooms and an exhibition hall. South Korea is presenting an unmistakable dedication to the convention market. The destination already presents a multitude of conference venues and with all eyes turning towards the destination in 2002, it can only help showcase these facilities even further.