a

The year 2011 continues to be one of major recognition for Seoul as a business events capital with the city recently receiving the 'Best BT MICE City' award at the 22nd Annual TTG Travel Awards this month. The achievement underscores Seoul's rise and increased prominence in the Asian meetings industry market. This follows the announcement three months earlier by the Union of International Statistics that Seoul now captured 5th place worldwide for the number of conventions hosted in 2010.

The event was held on October 6th at the World Ballroom in the Centara Grand & Bangkok Conventions Center. It formed part of the 2011 IT&CMA trade show, in which Seoul is actively participating with a promotional booth and promotional road show. Receiving the award on behalf of Seoul was Seoul Convention Bureau vice-president Maureen O'Crowley, who expressed the city's pleasure over the acknowledgement of its efforts.

Seoul is very proud to receive this prestigious award. It is very gratifying to receive recognition by the industry for all the hard work the city has undertaken to promote Seoul's assets to the world.

The annual TTG Travel Awards, presented by TTG Publishing, recognizes and honors the finest

luminaries in Asia-Pacific's travel industry. Every year, a city is selected for the 'Best BT (Business Travel) MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions) City' award for outstanding efforts in promoting that city as a business events destination. TTG's criteria for this award are as follows:

a. Best services and facilities catering specifically to the BT-MICE market.

b. Most professional sales and marketing team in terms of innovative ideas and servicing the BT_MICE market.

c. Most desirable and attractive incentives and value-added services to business travelers and MICE planners.

The TTG group produces a number of prominent meetings industry magazines, with TTG China, TTG-BTmice China, TTG Asia and TTGmice being the region's leading travel trade titles.

The award follows the recent announcement of Seoul's current UIA ranking, a marked improvement from 2009, with the city hosting 201 international meetings in 2010, compared to 151 the previous year. Since its foundation in 2008, the Seoul Convention Bureau has aggressively marketed the city as a prime destination for business tourism by steadily increasing its presence at global industry trade shows and congresses including IMEX and ICCA.

Seoul is also in the midst of a major expansion of meetings infrastructure capacity. Last month, new unique venue Culture Station 284 - formerly the old Seoul Station house - opened its doors, while this month the Stanford Seoul Hotel became the latest entry in the city's growing list of deluxe-class business hotels. Upcoming accommodation facilities for Seoul include the Conrad Seoul and JW Marriott Jung-gu in 2012, while the Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Korail Convention, set to open in 2013 and 2015 respectively, will be major new conference venues.

With Seoul's increasing recognition as a highly-capable business events capital and expanding infrastructure, the city looks to continue being a leading meetings destination in the future.