CIM: How is the international response to your recently launched CAC (Cities against COVID-19) campaign?

Don Byun: Seoul Convention Bureau (SCB) can say that it’s helpful that the Seoul Metropolitan Government is putting much effort in handling the situation with careful measures to assure the safety of the citizens. The campaign also aims to communicate the actions to cities facing similar situations worldwide. One of SCBs fundamental values is “the connection in partnership”. As Seoul’s mayor Park Wonsoon mentioned, “We are all living on one planet. There is no doubt that our solidarity and cooperation will eventually prevail over the virus”.

What has Seoul learned from the 2015 MERS outbreak?

Seoul’s principles for contagious disease control and prevention rest on two major pillars: promptness and transparency. As experience is the best teacher, the 2015 MERS outbreak in the Republic of Korea served as a turning point for both Seoul and Korea to help build fundamentals for infectious disease response. Since then, the city of Seoul, under the leadership of Mayor Park Wonsoon, has adhered to the principles ‘Transparency is a miracle drug for contagious diseases,’ and ‘Excessive response is better than sluggish response.’
Such principles are also playing a key role in tackling the COVID-19 outbreak in Seoul. While some countries hesitated to reveal their own virus outbreaks, Seoul and Korea have kept on testing aggressively, sharing information and incrementing disinfection efforts. A series of steps – including patient testing, epidemiological investigation and quarantine has been taken without a hitch, preventing any source of infection in advance. This has enabled Seoul to maintain urban services and functions without any lockdown or stay-at-home order while practicing its containment efforts.

All the information related to COVID-19 is open to the public and shared in a transparent manner. The COVID-19 webpage which can be found in the official website of the Seoul Metropolitan Government provides updates on confirmed cases within the city, their travel logs and relevant resources along with the city’s countermeasures. More detailed specifics can also be found in the websites of each district office. The city holds a daily press briefing on COVID-19, streamed live on the Internet and YouTube, to deliver latest developments on the outbreak and promote citizens’ cooperation in virus containment.

How could Seoul manage to maintain its urban functions?
People are following guidelines with excellent cooperation. The city put the trust in their residents with keeping social distance and public health procedures. We have great delivery systems that limited contacts with strangers are possible.

What is the idea of “Turning Crisis into Opportunity”?
There was an urgent need to add more capacity in both testing and treatment. Seoul has taken several innovative approaches to scale up its diagnostic and accommodation capacity. One of the measures was to expand the screening clinics exclusively designated for coronavirus testing in number with additional ones set up in front of hospitals and locations where mass infection took place. Another one was to set up drive-through testing facilities which lower a possibility of virus transmission and close contact.
The city introduced a dual track approach in which treatment institutions are divided by the severity of a patient’s symptoms: Those who show severe symptoms will receive treatment in a negative-pressure ward in a ‘Severe Emergency Treatment Center,’ while those with mild or moderate symptoms will be directed to go to a ‘Life Treatment Center,’ a public agency building temporarily turned into a treatment center.

Amid one crisis after another, Seoul’s innovative ideas with detailed measures played a significant role in tackling the infection at the initial stage. The prime example is an ‘emergency task force’ which is set up to respond to sporadic mass infection. The taskforce consists of a dozen people including epidemiological investigators and public officials and is being immediately dispatched to the site once a cluster of infections takes place. The taskforce sets up an on-site operation center and concentrates its utmost capacity to track down and prevent infections.
In recent days, as the outbreak pattern has shown changes with an increasing number of confirmed cases linked to arriving from overseas, the city has established a walk-through testing facility for overseas arrivals, which can test up to 1,000 people per day and arranged special taxi services and emergency shuttle buses from the airport to the city.

SCB is looking ahead – by launching a new PLUS SEOUL program. What kind of benefits are in for the clients?

2020 PLUS SEOUL program lowered the minimum number of international participants required to apply for the program from 500 to 200 for all international conferences. For conferences being postponed but hosted in 2020 are to be offered 10% more of the pre-approved financial support. The minimum number was lowered from 50 to 20 for corporate meetings and incentive tours and one extra benefit is to be added on top of the benefits selected by the company.
One big strength of PLUS SEOUL program is the customized programs to boost belongingness to their companies. These are still core part of the PLUS SEOUL program for corporate meetings and incentives. Newly introduced options are Seoul Customized Welcome Drinks, On-Spot Photo-booth, Food Trucks, AI Robot Rental and Event App Development services.
PLUS SEOUL proposes options to promote the sustainability. The digital means such as the customized apps are to replace the paper usage during events. And then some donation is to be made to the local organization under the name of the event or host organization as a token of expressing appreciation for choosing to be eco-friendly-the act of good will is returned to the local community with a good act.
Welcoming the companions of MICE participants with 1-day tour programs or meal cards is new, as well as AI Robot Rental, Airport Concierge Desk and Open Session for the Public.

Will Seoul host international conventions in the near future?
Many conferences scheduled to be hosted in August are still holding their original dates yet. These conferences were expecting more than 500 international participants when they applied for the supports of PLUS SEOUL program. However, we need to have collective efforts and actions such as lifting the travel advisory and/or restrictions, to build the foundation of resuming hosting the events.
Most part of the world is still determined to defeat the virus with the lockdown procedures at the local level. People only move within the boundary that limits the contacts with strangers. As a global citizen, what we need for each other is support and we need to stand strong together to overcome the crisis with the least harm done to the global society.
Seoul will keep sharing the news of the local MICE industry and seeking the opportunities where the cooperation can shine the light on the MICE industry to boost the business in Seoul.

Will SCB get support from the government to compensate the losses due to COVID-19?

The SCB is a division in the Seoul Tourism Organization (STO) which is fully funded by the metropolitan government. One of our tasks is to support the private sectors of MICE industry in Seoul. We promote the city together through advertisement on global media and attending global exhibitions together. The background behind the support program named PLUS SEOUL is to provide customized support to MICE events in Seoul with the private sectors, mainly with the Seoul MICE Alliance.
As the MICE industry was directly affected by the COVID-19, SCB dedicated to come up with response and recovery action plans. One of the response actions was to revise the PLUS SEOUL to attract more business events and possibly boost the business to the fullest upon resuming of the MICE industry toward the second half of the year 2020.
We also set up the MICE Support Center as an Emergency Response Action Center to provide consultations to the industry in many areas and also offer the essential public health materials such as hand sanitizers and masks.
Along with much compensations announced by the central government, SCB will provide the total budget of 2.5 billion KRW worth financial compensations to the business in Tourism and MICE industry of the city exclusively. We do not expect this to fully compensate the loss however, we hope it to be the support for our private business sector to continue the business.