'2023 Private Sector-Hosted Exhibition and International Conference Support Project' Call for Applications ... Busan City Fosters Global MICE Events and Strengthens Self-Sustainability

Event Hosting Costs, AKEI Certification, Consulting, Performance Analysis, and Promotion Support

Poster for the "2023 Busan City Private Sector Exhibition and International Conference Hosting Support Project" Competition.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dong-guk Lee] Busan City is implementing the ‘2023 Busan City Private-Hosted Exhibition and International Conference Support Project’ to foster global MICE events and strengthen corporate self-sustainability, with applications open until the 27th.

This public offering project supports privately developed exhibitions and international conferences by providing event hosting costs, AKEI certification, expert consulting and performance analysis, and promotion.

The city has allocated a total budget of 600 million KRW to select up to 7 exhibitions by development stage: Representative (up to 100 million KRW), Excellent (up to 70 million KRW), Promising (up to 50 million KRW), and New (up to 30 million KRW). For international conferences, up to 2 events at the Hope stage (up to 40 million KRW) will be selected, supporting a total of up to 9 events.

This year, to foster Busan’s representative MICE events with global competitiveness, up to 100 million KRW will be supported for convergence exhibitions combining international conferences, forums, competitions, and shows. Additionally, the regulation restricting new field eligibility to companies registered for less than 3 years has been removed to encourage new event development by Busan exhibition and convention companies.

The city has relaxed regulations to allow additional applications for national public projects without city fund matching and will actively support securing national funds by providing actual expenses for AKEI (Korea Exhibition Industry Promotion Association) certification for selected exhibitions.

Companies wishing to participate in the project must submit both an electronic mail and a printed application form to Busan City by 5 PM on the 27th.

For more details, check the announcement on the Busan City website or contact the MICE Industry Division or the Busan Tourism MICE Promotion Association.

Yu Gyu-won, Director of the City’s Tourism MICE Bureau, said, “Through this project, we will continuously discover MICE events with global competitiveness and provide support to strengthen corporate self-sustainability so that Busan can maintain its advantage in the increasingly competitive MICE industry.”

Despite difficulties such as the resurgence of COVID-19, last year the city supported 6 exhibitions in fields such as lifestyle, mobility, eco-friendliness, and pets, and 3 international conferences in marine women, hair, and food repurposing sectors, achieving 87,961 visitors and contract performance of 21.6 billion KRW.