First Release of the “Korea Tourism City Competitiveness Index”

Songpa-gu Ranks No. 1 Overall among 255 Administrative Districts Nationwide; Suyeong-gu Ranks No. 1 in Attractiveness

Yanolja Research, a research institute specializing in the travel and tourism industry, jointly hosted the seminar “Assessing and Strengthening the Competitiveness of Tourism Cities in Korea” on June 22 at Halla Hall, Grand Ballroom, Seoul Dragon City, together with Purdue University’s CHRIBA and Kyung Hee University’s H&T Analytics Center. At the seminar, Yanolja Research officially announced Korea’s first consumer-centered tourism indicator based on social big data: the Korea Tourism City Competitiveness Index, also known as the “Yanolja City Competitiveness Index” and hereinafter referred to as the “YCCI.”

The seminar was organized to present empirical alternatives for elevating the tourism industry beyond a mere supplement to domestic demand and positioning it as a national strategic industry and a new “export engine” that can complement the manufacturing sector, amid rapid population decline and the deepening risk of regional extinction outside the Seoul metropolitan area.

From Supplier-Centered to Consumer-Centered: Introduction of the Yanolja City Competitiveness Index (YCCI)

The YCCI is a consumer-centered tourism city evaluation model that departs from conventional supplier-centered assessment methods based primarily on quantitative administrative data. Instead, it precisely reflects the voluntary voices of actual tourism consumers expressed online. In collaboration with VAIV Company Inc., the analysis covered 29,336 tourist attractions across 255 administrative districts nationwide. Unstructured data were collected from major social channels, including YouTube, Instagram, blogs, Facebook, X, and online communities, and artificial intelligence-based sentiment analysis was applied to measure tourism competitiveness by city.

The index consists of two main dimensions. First, “Reputation” measures how widely a city is known and how much attention it receives in social data, based on social data buzz volume. Second, “Attractiveness” measures how positively tourists evaluate a given tourism city, based on emotional responses and positive sentiment ratios derived through sentiment analysis. In other words, the YCCI provides a more multidimensional diagnosis of tourism city competitiveness by simultaneously reflecting how frequently a city is mentioned and how positively it is evaluated.

Professor SooCheong Jang, Director of Yanolja Research and Professor at Purdue University, delivered the first keynote presentation. He stated, “The tourism industry’s contribution to GDP in Korea stands at 3.8%, less than half of the global average of 9.1%.” He emphasized, “Attracting 50 million inbound tourists should not be viewed merely as a numerical target, but as a benchmark for a long-term national strategy to sustain Korea’s economic growth in an era of population decline.” He added, “To become a truly advanced tourism nation, Korea must go beyond simply increasing the number of visitors. It must also expand per-capita spending, lengthen stays, disperse visitors across regions, and increase repeat visits.” He further noted, “The Yanolja City Competitiveness Index will serve as a ‘strategic map’ showing where Korean cities stand in the minds of tourists.”

Songpa-gu Ranks No. 1 Overall in Domestic Tourism City Competitiveness; Major Cities and Regions with Anchor Attractions Dominate the Top Tier

According to the presentation, Seoul’s Songpa-gu ranked No. 1 overall in domestic tourism city competitiveness, supported by its diverse and integrated tourism resources, including Lotte World, Seokchon Lake, and Olympic Park. Busan’s Suyeong-gu ranked second, followed by Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo-gu in third place. By category, Seoul’s Jongno-gu, with its abundant historical and cultural resources, ranked first in Reputation, while Busan’s Suyeong-gu, equipped with drone shows and waterfront content, ranked first in Attractiveness, demonstrating distinct competitive advantages.

The results show that tourism city competitiveness is not determined solely by the fame of a single landmark. Rather, it is formed through the combined effects of anchor tourism resources, accessibility, city image, experiential content, and consumers’ emotional responses. In particular, metropolitan areas with large-scale integrated tourism resources, such as Seoul’s Songpa-gu and Yeongdeungpo-gu, showed strong performance, while regions such as Busan’s Suyeong-gu, which combines waterfront scenery, nighttime content, and lifestyle-oriented experiences, also secured a high level of competitiveness.

Six Core Strategies Presented to Strengthen Korea’s Tourism City Competitiveness

Professor Kyuwan Choi of the College of Hotel and Tourism Management at Kyung Hee University delivered the second keynote presentation. He diagnosed that, “For a city to become a successful tourism destination, it is essential to move beyond ‘sightseeing-oriented’ tourism that depends on a single large-scale attraction and transition toward ‘experiential content’ that visitors can immerse themselves in and share.”

Professor Choi proposed six core strategic tasks for strengthening tourism city competitiveness: ▲ customer diversification; ▲ tourism city branding; ▲ optimization of tourism destination and tourism product portfolios; ▲ enhancement of promotional efficiency; ▲ improvement of infrastructure efficiency, including transportation and information systems; and ▲ establishment of a governance system.

In particular, the survey found that regions such as Gangneung, Sokcho, Chuncheon, Gyeongju, and Jeonju, which possess clear anchor resources and distinctive local identities, ranked in the top tier alongside major cities. This demonstrates the importance of strategies that reinterpret local assets as modern tourism experiences and connect them to city branding.

Professor Choi emphasized, “Having many high-quality tourism resources does not automatically make a city a strong tourism destination.” He added, “Sustainable tourism city competitiveness is created only when tourism resources are connected with city branding, customer strategies, stay-oriented products, transportation and information infrastructure, and public-private collaboration systems.”

Panel Discussion: Implementation Priorities for Tourism City Competitiveness

In the subsequent panel discussion, Professor SooCheong Jang served as moderator. The panel discussed the potential policy applications of the YCCI; strategies to strengthen the tourism competitiveness of Seoul and Busan; regional dispersal strategies for the era of 50 million inbound tourists; the linkage between MICE and city branding; tourism data infrastructure and digital transformation; and collaboration models between public institutions and private platforms.

Panelists included Ki Yon Kil, President and CEO of the Seoul Tourism Organization; Jeongsil Lee, President of the Busan Tourism Organization; Kyungsoo Yang, Executive Vice President of the International Tourism Division at the Korea Tourism Organization; Eunju Yoon, Professor of MICE Planning and Management at Hallym University; Kwangman Hwang, Chief Executive Officer of ezpmp Co., Ltd.; and Seongsik Park, Chief External Strategy Officer of NOL Universe Co., Ltd.

The discussion emphasized that, in order to enhance tourism city competitiveness, it is necessary to move beyond individual promotional competition among local governments. Instead, national-level overseas marketing, the on-the-ground execution capabilities of regional tourism organizations, the city-brand diffusion effects of the MICE industry, and the customer data and distribution channels of private OTA platforms must be organically integrated.

Professor SooCheong Jang stated, “The Korea Tourism City Competitiveness Index will go beyond a simple ranking competition and serve as a strategic map that enables each local government to identify its current position in the domestic tourism market and determine where to concentrate future resources and budgets.” He added, “Going forward, we will publish this index regularly every year and contribute to advancing Korea’s tourism industry and promoting balanced regional development based on data.”

Yanolja Research plans to further enhance the YCCI on an annual basis, continuously track changes in the reputation and attractiveness of domestic tourism cities, and develop it into a data-driven strategic map for tourism cities that can be used by local governments, public institutions, and private platforms.