The Gyeongju City government held this year’s first expanded meeting of senior city officials and investigated the city’s preparations for hosting the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit at the Gyeongju Hwabaek International Convention Center (HICO) on Jan. 21.
The meeting, presided over by Gyeongju Mayor Joo Nak-young, took up major projects the municipal government will implement this year, and the pending issues related to the APEC Summit, to be held in November.
The meeting took place at HICO, the venue of the upcoming APEC Summit.
Earlier, the municipal government accelerated preparations, including repairing major facilities, refurbishing roads and landscapes, improving the environment of tourist sites, and expanding the transportation infrastructure.
During the meeting, participants discussed the progress of remodeling of the HICO conference rooms, improving accommodation and convenience facilities of the Bomun Tourist Complex, and conditions of refurbishing major tourist spots and cultural properties.
The meeting also examined conditions of refurbishing accommodation facilities of the Bomun Tourist Complex in which leaders of participating APEC countries, delegates, and foreign and Korean press corps will stay and major tourist spots.
Gyeongju City plans to offer optimal conditions to delegates and visitors by ramping up the accommodation convenience of the Bomun Tourist Complex with 4,500 accommodation rooms.
The municipal government plans to conduct campaigns to welcome guests, to encourage citizens’ participation and diverse programs and improve civilians’ awareness.
Gyeongju City Mayor Joo Nak-young said, “The 2025 APEC Summit will serve as a cornerstone to catapult Gyeongju into a global culture and tourism city. Gyeongju will make the APEC Summit a success through seamless preparations and create sustainable growth engines in the post-APEC era.”
Gyeongju plans to make strenuous efforts to make Gyeongju a global city by implementing policies for citizens on top of preparing the APEC Summit.
Foreigners who visited Gyeongju City in the most recent year topped 1 million, the Gyeongju City government said. Inbound tourists tour streets of Gyeongju. (Photos: Gyeongju)
Gyeongju Attracts Over 1 Million Foreigners in 2024
The number of foreigners who visited Gyeongju City in the most recent year topped 1 million, the Gyeongju City government said on Jan. 13.
Figures, compiled by “Korea Tourism Data Lap” of Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), showed that Gyeongju attracted a combined 1,179,094 foreigners during the 12-month period between December 2023 and November 2024.
During the period, visitors from China and wider region topped the list of inbound tourists, with 411,966 visitors.
As the government is considering offering no-visa entry to Chinese group tourists, whether it will boost the number of foreign tourists visiting Gyeongju remains to be seen.
Inbound tourists from North America, Europe and Australia were compiled at 129,568, followed by 64,096 Japanese and 61,192 Russians, 3,461 Turkish people and 386 visitors from the United Arab Emirates.
Gyeonju aims to grow into a global city by attracting 1 million foreign visitors in connection with the APEC Summit, scheduled to be held between late October and early November.
Gyeongju Mayor Joo said, “Attracting 1 million foreign tourists in one year is a significant achievement, and demonstrates the competitiveness of the city’s tourism industry, and from now on, the city government will implement new tourism strategies targeting the global market.”
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