Seoul Tourism Foundation Develops 'Smart Tourism City Index'... Seoul Ranks 4th

Overview of the Smart Tourism Cities Index.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] The Seoul Tourism Foundation announced the results of a study on the development of the 'Smart Tourism City Index' on the 8th, as part of a collaborative project with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

The index was developed over a six-month research period through framework development and standardization work, consisting of five main categories: Attractiveness, Accessibility, Digitalization readiness, Sustainability, and Collaborative partnership. These are further divided into 18 mid-level categories and 42 detailed indicators.

Additionally, 12 major cities that already possess or have the potential to develop smart tourism city capabilities were selected to apply the developed index. The selected cities include Seoul, along with New York, Tokyo, London, Barcelona, Bangkok, Shanghai, San Francisco, Singapore, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Ho Chi Minh City.

As a result of applying the index, Seoul scored a total of 69 points, ranking 4th after Singapore (76 points), Amsterdam (74 points), and New York (69 points). Singapore and Amsterdam showed high levels of both tangible and intangible infrastructure, which form the foundation of smart tourism cities, resulting in high overall index scores. In particular, smart city projects such as 'Smart Nation (Singapore)' and 'Amsterdam Smart City (Amsterdam)' successfully established internal and external governance, earning high scores in the Collaborative partnership category.

Seoul also demonstrated generally high scores across all indicators, showcasing its status as a representative smart tourism city. Especially, based on its outstanding technological capabilities, Seoul ranked 3rd in the Digitalization readiness category. It also ranked in the top tier in the Sustainability category (3rd), reflecting high evaluations in health and safety management. However, Seoul received a relatively low score in the Accessibility category (11th), due to a lack of geographic information services utilizing Google Maps compared to other cities.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government first announced the research findings at the ENTER Conference 2021 webinar in January and plans to share the results at future UNWTO smart tourism-related events.

This study was conducted in response to the increasing demand for contactless, digital, and sustainable tourism following the COVID-19 pandemic. It aimed to evaluate the competitiveness of Seoul and major global tourism cities as smart tourism cities and to diagnose future smart tourism-related projects. Furthermore, the goal was to develop an index that can be continuously managed and widely used as a global standard by various countries.

Hwang Mijeong, head of the Industry Cooperation Team at the Seoul Tourism Foundation, stated, "Smart tourism is an essential element for maintaining sustainable tourism cities amid the increasing tourism demand after COVID-19. The developed index will be used as a tool for systematic monitoring in future smart tourism-related projects."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.