While the MICE market suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the efforts to overcome the crisis by Seoul MICE has been recognized.
 

Seoul Tourism Organization won the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) BEST Marketing Award at the ICCA Congress 2020 held both online and offline in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on November 3, 2020.
 

The ICCA BEST Marketing Award, also known as the Oscar of the field of international conferences, is a reputable award given to selected organizations recognized for outstanding urban marketing every year by the ICCA.
 

In consideration of the special pandemic situation, the theme of this year’s award was “Recognizing Leadership in Transformation.” Five organizations that demonstrated the best practices of transformation were recognized with ICCA BEST Marketing Awards.
 

This year’s win by Seoul is meaningful in the sense that it is the first win by an Asian participant in eight years since the award received by Taiwan in 2012. More specifically, the fact that the winners of the ICCA BEST Marketing Award for the past three years were usually convention organizations of European countries, such as Estonia (2019), Scotland (2018), and Belgium (2017), the status of Seoul MICE has been raised in its position as an Asian country.
 

In fact, Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Tourism Organization have been promoting Seoul as a city of bleisure to the world, under the slogan “PLan with US, PLay with US, PLUS SEOUL,” since last year. This year, however, the MICE industry was greatly impacted by the unforeseen COVID-19 situation.
 

For this reason, SMG and STO have been making efforts to overcome the crisis and proactively respond to the changes in the MICE industry in the post-COVID-19 era. In cooperation with MICE businesses, they sought ways to raise the sustainability of MICE through activities, such as the Seoul MICE Industry Crisis Coping Project, disinfection and insurance services for event venues, and Virtual Seoul platform created with 360〬 3D, since the beginning of the pandemic.
 

By promoting the #Stand_Strong_Together campaign with the MICE industry, they spread messages of hope that the crisis can be overcome by standing strong together and strived to boost the MICE industry with financial and educational support through the Seoul MICE Industry Crisis Coping Project.
 

Furthermore, to lead the world of the new normal, they held international conferences on Virtual Seoul, a 3D space that looks like Seoul, and took the lead in promoting the Seoul MICE Safety Care (insurance and concierge services), thermal camera rental services and disinfection for events, and dissemination of the manual on disinfection and prevention for the safe hosting of events.
 

A collection of these efforts to overcome the COVID-19 crisis titled “Sustainable Energy of Seoul” was entered and consequently won the award, confirming the potential of K-MICE.