Market covering 15.76 million annual participants now officially recognized

Survey sheds self-reporting limits to secure objectivity

Sales and employment data to be tracked with greater precision

[Image generated with generative AI]
[Image generated with generative AI]

With the meeting industry joining international conferences and incentive travel in receiving official recognition, all four segments of the MICE industry now have nationally approved statistical frameworks. The inclusion of corporate meetings — previously tracked only through independent surveys — is expected to establish a credible, comprehensive data foundation for the entire MICE sector.

The "Meeting Industry Survey," designed to systematically measure the scale and conditions of South Korea's meetings sector, has passed review by the Ministry of Statistics and secured national approved statistics status (No. 314007). The approval completes a national statistics framework covering all four segments of the MICE industry — meetings, incentive travel, international conferences and exhibitions.

Jointly pursued by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization, the Meeting Industry Survey aims to define the scale and characteristics of the domestic meetings sector, encompassing corporate meetings and other gatherings held in South Korea.

Under the statistical definition, a "meeting" refers to a gathering of 10 or more domestic or foreign participants held at an external meeting facility for at least four hours, organized by a government body, public institution, association, academic society or corporation. According to the "2024 MICE Industry Statistics Research," about 169,000 meetings were held in South Korea in 2024, accounting for 94.2 percent of all MICE events, with total attendance reaching 15.76 million people.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization have been pursuing national approval for MICE surveys they had conducted independently since 2009. International conferences received approval in 2024, incentive travel in 2025, and the meeting industry in October this year, completing an officially recognized statistics framework across all four MICE segments, including the existing exhibition industry survey.

The Meeting Industry Survey covers meeting venues across 13 business categories nationwide — including hotels, universities, training centers and unique venues. Survey items include the scale of meetings held, organizing bodies, event budgets, and the sales and employment status of venue operators, providing essential baseline data for policy development. The first set of results is scheduled for release in December 2027 through the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) and the Korea Tourism Data Lab.

"With meetings now joining international conferences and incentive travel as nationally approved statistics, the national statistics framework for the entire MICE sector is complete," said Do Hyeon-ji, head of the tourism data division at the Korea Tourism Organization. "We will actively support policies to develop the MICE industry on the basis of reliable statistics, and accelerate efforts to establish a unified national approved statistics system for MICE."


terry@heraldcorp.com