Destination report
(under 500 foreign delegates) and is
offering an additional subsidy of 10m won
(US$8,162) for medium-sized groups (500
to 1,000 foreign delegates).
The figure available rises to 25m won
for large groups (1,000 to 2,000 foreign
delegates) and to 40m won for extra-large
groups (over 2,000 foreign delegates).
Groups yet to consider Korea as a
corporate meetings/incentive destination
will receive support for site inspections.
PLUS SEOUL
The existing PLUS SEOUL programme
has eased some conditions for planners
applying for assistance, with the
minimum number of international
delegates required for an event to qualify
now lowered from 500 to 200.
Conferences postponed and hosted within
the year are to be offered 10% more of the
pre-approved financial support.
The qualifying numbers have also been
lowered from 50 to 20 for corporate
meetings and incentive tours.
New support options also include Seoul
Customised Welcome Drinks, On-Spot
Photo-booth, Food Trucks, AI Robot
Rental and Event App Development
services.
Incheon
Incheon City is supporting
tourism-related companies affected by
Covid-19 with the expansion of its
management stability fund for small
businesses from 65bn won to 150bn won.
Busan
The port city of Busan now provides
support of up to 1.5m won for groups that
have had to cancel their events due to
Covid-19. The support applies to penalty
fees for cancellation and service fees for
prepaid insurance fees.
The city will also provide up to 2m won
for safety equipment relating to Covid-19
(masks, hand sanitiser, etc) for events held
in Busan.
And corporate organisers can get help
on costs involving new conference
technology, such as a VR conference, with
up to 5m won for each conference.
for meetings. A KTO programme to
support and increase the use of
Meeting Technology is making
available to qualifying organisations a
further 1.4bn won.
Seoul recently delivered an interesting
virtual meeting with delegates as Avatars,
a step up from a standard Zoom meeting.
(http://me2.do/5XkNOuQN)
Virtual destination and venue tours
have been available for a while, but KTO
and their MICE partners have been
stepping up the pace with these now
including ideas of what to do when
delegates arrive as well as new virtual ‘fly
throughs’ of facilities like Coex.
There is a new virtual Vibrant Seoul
City Tour available via YouTube and also
a Coex 360 Tour at k-mice.visitkorea.or
Above: Seoul,
Korea
Gangwon
Gangwon CVB’s special support
programme in response to Covid-19 is
open to applications until 31 July, 2020
and, again, has a scale of support with
qualification delegate numbers lowered for
international conferences, incentives and
corporate meetings.
Jeju
Jeju, Korea’s sub-tropical island, popular
with Koreans for weekend breaks, is offering
a number of video/drone footage tours of
some of the extinct volcanic islets and
landscape via its www.visitjeju.net/en site.
Jeju CVB is accelerating its plan of
support for new Unique Venues, as well as
offering new support, at least in the short
term, by way of contributions towards
venue rental fees, dinner fees and
souvenirs for international conventions,
incentive tours and corporate meetings
held in Jeju.
Korea MICE Bureau is also
coordinating with regional CVBs during
this time to see how they can be supported
and helped to prepare new programmes for
when the situation settles.
Taking a digital lead
The Covid-19 outbreak has helped
spark an interest in digital solutions
Wellness
Korea’s ‘healthy’ tradition of developing
alternative medicines such as Ginseng, and
hot spring spa and forest bathing offers are
also worth checking out: http://wellnessvr.
visitmedicalkorea.com/en/main.
Times for contemplation, too, and
maybe you will be ready to appreciate a
visit in person to one of the many the
Buddhist temples across Korea which offer
activities starting from one hour to
24-hour temple stays for groups of up to
60. Full details via the Temple Stay
programme: www.eng.templestay.com
More details on
MICE options in
Korea are available at
www.korea
convention.org
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