A New Data-Driven Model to Evaluate the Competitiveness of Korea’s Tourism Cities

Yanolja Research to Host Seminar on “Evaluating and Strengthening the Competitiveness of Korea’s Tourism Cities”

Yanolja Research, a research institute specializing in the travel and tourism industry, will unveil a new evaluation model that diagnoses the competitiveness of Korea’s tourism cities based on data. Yanolja Research, in collaboration with Purdue University’s CHRIBA and Kyung Hee University’s H&T Analytics Center, will host the seminar “Evaluating and Strengthening the Competitiveness of Korea’s Tourism Cities” on June 22, beginning at 1:30 p.m., at Halla Hall 1 & 2 on the third floor of Seoul Dragon City.

The seminar is grounded in the recognition that for Korea to make a genuine leap toward becoming a major tourism nation, it must move beyond tourism flows concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area and a limited number of popular destinations, and precisely assess the potential and distinctive competitiveness of cities across the country. In particular, the seminar is significant in that it analyzes Korea’s structural tourism challenges—including the tourism balance deficit caused by the imbalance between inbound and outbound tourism, overconcentration in the Seoul metropolitan area, regional disparities in tourism spending, and the homogenization of tourism content—through data, while presenting directions for strengthening city-specific competitiveness.

Yanolja Research and its joint research partners conducted social big data-based analyses of buzz volume and positive and negative sentiment for 255 cities, counties, districts, and major tourist destinations nationwide. Based on these analyses, they developed a “Tourism City Competitiveness Evaluation Model” that comprehensively diagnoses consumers’ cognitive evaluations of urban tourism resources, such as natural landscapes, cultural heritage, festivals, and infrastructure, as well as the emotional images evoked by each city. The seminar will consist of two thematic presentations and a panel discussion. At this seminar, the results of the evaluation of domestic tourism city competitiveness using social big data will be presented, along with strategies to strengthen the competitiveness of each city.

“This seminar is particularly meaningful in that it diagnoses the current status of tourism cities across Korea using quantitative indicators and social big data,” said SooCheong Jang, Director of Yanolja Research. “We hope that the city-specific strengths and limitations revealed by the data will provide practical insights for local governments and DMOs in strategy development, tourism city branding, and the advancement of regional tourism policy.”

The seminar is open to anyone interested in the future of Korean tourism and the revitalization of regional tourism, including local government officials, DMO representatives, tourism industry professionals, and academic researchers. Registration is available through the Yanolja Research website or via the QR code on the seminar poster.