C-Festival proves to be a spectacular triumph

Home > Business > Economy

print dictionary print

C-Festival proves to be a spectacular triumph

테스트

Korean singer Psy performs at the C-Festival, which was held at COEX, southern Seoul on Sunday. This year’s festival lasted for five days from May 4 to May 8. [CHOI JUNG-DONG]

The five-day C-Festival at COEX, in southern Seoul last week had an estimated economic impact of over 160 billion won ($136.8 million), according to a report on Wednesday from the Korea Industrial Development Institute (KID), a local think tank.

Some 1.56 million Koreans and 110,000 foreign tourists visited the event, which was held from last Wednesday to Sunday. The economic impact is based on the fact that the event comprised 160.3 billion won worth of products, 3.29 billion won worth of earnings and 10.12 billion won worth of tax revenues. During the five-day event, 1,164 people were temporarily hired and visitors spent 91 billion won at the venue and at neighboring shopping malls, including Hyundai Department Store, for a per capita expenditure of 95,988 won, according to the KID. Last year’s event saw 2.35 million visitors and resulted in an economic impact of about 232 billion won. Given that the festival lasted 11 days last year, this year’s festival saw 57 percent more visitors and a 52 percent greater economic impact, the institute said.

“The C-Festival this year helped revitalize the local economy and the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) industry,” said the KID report.

COEX, short for Convention Exhibition, is the convention arm of the Korea International Trade Association and aspires to make MICE its growth engine. The success this year is largely attributable to the fact that the government unexpectedly designated Friday a temporary public holiday, and also because many Chinese and Japanese tourists traveled to Korea to spend their concurrent holidays in Seoul.


BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun@joongang.co.kr]




Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)