Yanolja Research to Host Seminar on the “2026 Global Festival Attractiveness Evaluation"

Yanolja Research, a travel and tourism industry research institute led by Director Soocheong Jang, will co-host the “2026 Global Festival Attractiveness Evaluation” seminar with the CHRIBA Institute at Purdue University and the H&T Analytics Center at Kyung Hee University on Monday, June 8, at 1:30 PM. The event will take place at the International Conference Hall on the 9th floor of the Seoul Global Center (38 Jong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul).

The seminar has been organized in response to the shifting paradigm of the global tourism market, where the focus is moving from simply “visiting places” to the “quality of experiences.” It aims to redefine the value of festivals through data science. Drawing attention from both academia and industry, the seminar will introduce a new evaluation model that moves beyond traditional metrics such as visitor numbers and economic impact by analyzing global social media big data to quantify participants’ actual experiences and emotional responses.

Today, festivals have emerged as strategic assets that not only generate large-scale tourism demand within a short period but also encapsulate local identity and cultural imagery. They are increasingly recognized as key content that shapes regional brands and influences tourism flows. In response to this trend, the three institutions jointly developed the “Global Festival Attractiveness Evaluation Model,” which systematically indexes participants’ experiences and emotions captured in global social media data. By applying a unified standard to major festivals around the world, the model aims to provide a multidimensional assessment of each festival’s unique appeal, emotional distinctiveness, and global competitiveness.

The seminar program consists of two keynote presentations followed by a panel discussion. In the first session, Soocheong Jang, Director of Yanolja Research and Professor at Purdue University, will present on “Developing the Global Festival Attractiveness Index,” covering the theoretical framework of the model, social data analysis methodologies, and index calculation methods. In the second session, Kyuwon Choi, Professor at the College of Hotel & Tourism Management at Kyung Hee University and Director of the H&T Analytics Center, will unveil the “Global Festival Attractiveness Evaluation Results” for the first time. His presentation will analyze the characteristics and success factors of top-ranked festivals by region and type, while also exploring strategies to strengthen the global competitiveness of Korean festivals. The panel discussion that follows will address sustainable growth strategies, including key success factors of global festivals, differentiation strategies for regional festivals, and branding strategies for Korean festivals in the global market.

“So far, festivals have largely been evaluated by how many people attended. This seminar is meaningful because it shifts the focus toward what participants actually experienced and how they felt,” said Soocheong Jang, Director of Yanolja Research. “We hope this evaluation model will serve as a global standard and become a turning point for innovating festival planning and operations through a data-driven approach.” He added, “Korean regional festivals must now move beyond competition in scale and redesign their strategies around differentiated experiences, emotional immersion, and global scalability.”

The seminar is open to anyone interested in the tourism industry, including festival organizers, local government officials, and academic researchers. Pre-registration is available until 3:00 PM on Friday, June 5, through the registration link posted on the Yanolja Research website or via the QR code included in the event poster.