Renaissance
of Seoul

Seoul Mayor Oh pushes plans to make Seoul full of cultural assets with vibrant economy

One of the top projects that Seoul City plans to carry out in the next four years is making Seoul City an economic cultural city that will draw the attention across the world, comparable to major metropolises such as New York, London and Paris, city officials said.
A big project in the comprehensive plan is making Cheonggyecheon, a picturesque stream dissecting the center of the city, digitalized to show where high-tech meets nature. The areas around the stream will be a model Wibro zone with wireless Internet streets under the catchphrase of "Cheonggyecheon where Wireless Internet is Ready."The digital tour guide will be available at the areas surrounding the famous stream through PDA with multilingual services providing information on history, ecology, shopping and performances. In the first stage of the project, the digital tour guide system will be introduced, followed by work to expand the system to all areas inside the four gates in the center of Seoul in the second stage.A digital media wall some 5 meters tall was set up at the Gwanggyo section of the stream providing on real time such pertinent financial information as the foreign exchange rates, stock indices, and interest rates and other world economic information. Digital kiosks have been installed at 8 bridges over the stream to provide to tourists information on shopping malls along the stream, performances and other events.
Under the Open Gheonggyecheon Project for 365 Days Festival, there will always be something going on around the stream such as expos, experimental fashion shows, digital movie festival, and other festivals to symbolize the stream.
There also will be a plaza for movies under the Gwansu Bridge with a screen 8mx3m, showing independent films, movies for women, animation and musical films.
On weekends, cafes will be open to any visitors who want to take rest while they are visiting the Cheonggye Plaza and the Samil Bridge along the stream.
The city plans to create a historic cultural plaza linking the Gyeongbok Palace, City Hall and Sungryemun(South Gate) by 2008. The project will be linked to the work to recover Gwanghwa Gate to its original splendor and create a Sejong Plaza, which will be connected with Cheonggyecheon board walk and Gyeongbok Plaza. Before the actual work starts, the city will collect ideas from citizens to finalize the plan. The city also plans to build a new 19 storey administrative building in its compound with a sky lounge on top of the building, Sejong Chamber Hall for concerts and a tourism guide center. He new building will have a total space of 21,645 pyeong in the shape of Taeguk to express a dynamic Seoul marching toward its future.
Seoul City spreads its activities around to international arenas, also, to spur its tourism industry. The city has lined up various international sports events in Seoul for next year and beyond including the Han River Rope Walk Crossing Event, which will be developed to become an international sports event in 2008.
It is scheduled to invite the 2007 International Beach Volley Ball World Tour to hold events in June next year, followed by the International 2008 Triathlon World Cup and the World Swimming Championship in cooperation with the Korea Swimming Federation.
The city has also lined up a number of international conventions to be held in Seoul, with more than 1,000 foreign participants. They include the World Air Route Development Forum in 2009 hosted by the Incheon Airport Management Corp.
The city will try to attract to Korea some of the 272 international conventions to be held around the world between now and 2010 as part of its effort to enliven the tourism industry in Seoul and the country.
Seoul City will set up the Seoul Tourism Marketing Promotion Headquarters within the Seoul Industrial Commerce Promotion Institute in December or early next year.
The new tourism marketing unit is part of the city's plan to attract 6.75 million foreign tourists next year, up some 600,000 tourists from this year.The figure breaks down to 480,000 to be attracted by the private sector and the rest by the city through its own tourism promotion programs.
The new tourism organization will have tourism planning team, and teams for China, Japan, Europe, Americas and conventions with the headquarters and five teams. Within the year, some 24 professional marketing staff proficient in foreign languages will be hired and the number of staff will be expanded step-by-step as the need arises as the year wears on. They will be assigned to major

foreign countries to attract tourists to Seoul such as China and Japan through various regional strategies tailored to specific regions. They will take on core roles in these efforts.China is one of the core countries next year, designated as the Year of Tourism Exchange with Korea with the Beijing Olympics due to start in 2008. Most of the tourism promotion programs with many incentives will be focused on coastal cities in China,especially in southern and eastern regions. Five large cities in China and Taipei in Taiwan will be the focus of
intensive tourism marketing by Seoul City with such programs as the invitation to major journalists, travel agencies, and related firms and hold promotional events to the general public in those cities including exhibitions, cultural performances, and road shows, among others, designed to invite them to visit Seoul. Beijing, Shanghai, Gwannghou, Qingdao and Senyang will be the five largest cities in China where Seoul City plan to focus its tourism promotion programs to attract Chinese tourists.
In addition, executives of multinational companies, conglomerates, public servants of sister-cities and school travels will be invited to tour industrial facilities in Korea as part of the incentive-loaded tourism programs. The tourism promotion team will also help develop tourism products related to the Beijing Olympics and draw up tourism campaign plans.
In Japan, the tourism programs will be detailed to suit all bracket of tourists in Japan including quality tourism products and conduct
tourism promotion programs in cooperation with private tourism agencies, with special targets on female tourists, school tours and private groups.
The tourism marketing team would lend its hands to make public relations material for media, travel agencies, public relations agencies, and related companies to promote such mega events as Osaka Tour Expo, Tokyo JATA Expo and other travel related expos in Japan in a bid to increase the number of visitors to those events. The team will also draw up package tour incentive programs for multinational companies, large business firms, public organizations, schools, educational organizations, private hobby clubs and social organizations.
During festivals on Daehangro Street in Seoul in September, the marketing team will add various "Korean Wave"performances to the schedule for foreign tourists to enjoy and learn more about Korea. All tourism marketing programs by country and region will be directed to create synergy with each other to maximize their effects and results.
Hi, Seoul Festival, the most representative festival for Seoul, the International Women's Beach Volleyball World Tour, and fashion shows featuring "Korean Wave"stars will be made into tourism products to attract tourists.
Seoul's landmark tourism sites such as Cheonggyecheon Stream, the Han River, Mt. Nam, and Insa-dong Alley will be included in the Seoul tour program, along with Coex and Kintex convention facilities in a bid to bring large conventioneers. Efforts will also be made to attract short-term tourists taking advantage of stop-overs in airlines flight schedules.
The tourism promotion headquarters will set targets by nation, sector, and quantity for regularized management of those targets. It is also considering the assignment of the Seoul Municipal Policy Institute to make a study of the organization of the Seoul Tourism Corp. to be set up next year for effective management of the tourism promotion sector. The new entity could take form of local public corporation, corporation, or foundation, among others,
that are under study. By March next year, the organization form will be decided by the city and by the end of the first half, all kinds of preparatory work including the selection of staff and regulations will be established in consultation with related organizations for its official launch in August as an appropriate tourism marketing entity.
The tourism marketing headquarters will be made part of the new organization to ensure continuity of the nature of its business by the new entity.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon began his term of office in July and he has been making quite an effort to make the nation's capital as one that can stand out among capitals in the world, like Paris, London and Tokyo to make the city's 10 million be proud of their city.
At only 45 this year, Oh became the youngest mayor in the capital's history, winning the mayoral election by creating "Oh Wind."None of his rivals could quite down the wind, that swept the new mayor into the office.
During the inaugural ceremony, Mayor Oh said he wants to make Seoul like New York, full of economic activity, Paris with lots of culture, London with dignity, Milan, a fashion capital, and Sydney with a famous landmark, so that Seoul would have its own special brand to stand on its own to compete with rival capitals on the world stage. He said if Seoul becomes a strong competitive city, the country's competitive strength will grow strong because Seoul has such a large influence over the entire country. When the quality of life for Seoul citizens improves, so would those of the entire country, he added. nw

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon talks at the breakfast meeting of the Korea Standards Association as an invited speaker recently on the subject of "Seoul City's policies in the next four years."

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, center, Incheon Mayor Ahn Sang-soo, left, and Gyeonggi Province Gov. Kim Moon-soo, right, each holds a copy of the agreement pledging cooperation among them on clean air, transportation and clean water.

A drawing of a new building for Seoul City to be built in the present City Hall compound.

A Christmas tree lighting ceremony held recently in front of Seoul City Hall.

Seoul Mayor Oh shakes hands with visiting Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, along with Seoul City officials and members of the L.A. mayor's party.

A man-made lake inside the Seoul Central Park in Ttuksom, northeastern Seoul.

An aerial view of the skating rink at Seoul Plaza opened to public free of charge during the winter.