By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
Despite a series of ambitious projects, Seoul has a long way to go before it has a high profile internationally, according to a British expert on brand management.
"Seoul should have a clear, visionary and long-term strategy to become an attractive global city," Simon Anholt told The Korea Times.
"It needs to create a working partnership between government, civil society and business and concentrate on 'doing' things rather than 'saying' things because cities are judged by what they do and what they make, not by what they say."
Anholt plans to visit Seoul next week to give a keynote speech on Korea's and Seoul's globalization efforts at the annual meeting of the Seoul International Business Advisory Council.
He is known as the leading authority on managing and measuring national identity and reputation, and the creator of the field of nation branding.
As a member of the U.K. Foreign Office's Public Diplomacy Board, Anholt has advised the governments of some 30 countries, from Korea and Botswana to Chile, Jamaica, Bhutan and the Faroe Islands.
Anholt said he believes cities with good and positive reputations find that attracting tourists, business visitors, investors, talented people, and major sporting and cultural events is easier and cheaper.
"Cities with weak or negative reputations find that all of those things are twice as hard and twice as expensive. When a city has a weak image, it's almost as if its citizens had to pay double taxes," he said.
Anholt has published annually the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index and the City Brands Index, which have been used by governments worldwide in their efforts to improve the global reputations of their countries and cities.
The City Brands Index measures how other countries think about a city's people, environment, facilities and infrastructure, culture and nightlife, tourist attractions and potential for immigrants.
"My research shows Seoul doesn't have a very high profile internationally. It's hard to make direct comparisons between the two indexes, but it looks as if Seoul is probably less well known than South Korea," said the expert.
In recent months, the concepts of city brands and nation brands have become increasingly familiar here as central and regional governments have launched various programs to attract foreign visitors and investment.