Yeosu Expo Underpromoted Overseas
By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter
About two years have passed since the Paris-based Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) selected Korea to host the 2012 World Expo in the remote southwestern port city of Yeosu, South Jeolla Province.
However, many are concerned that Yeosu's efforts to transform itself ahead of the Expo opening in 2012 have fallen short.
What sets Yeosu, the next host of the expo series after Shanghai, apart from its predecessors like Montreal, Osaka, Vancouver, New York and Brussels is an obvious lack of global appeal and tourism infrastructure.
Yeosu had been an irrelevant small town, even among many Koreans outside the southwestern region.
The theme of the Yeosu Expo - "The Living Ocean and Coast: Diversity of Resources and Sustainable Activities" - has also been under promoted by environmental experts and city planners.
During a recent symposium in Jeju, BIE Secretary General Vicente Gonzalez Loscertale said, "The Expo will contribute to attaching a more innovative and relevant image that advances Yeosu and Korea as well as their cultural and political identity."
But such prospects seem dim at the moment, particularly in light of the slow progress in the improvement of its image and infrastructure.
As the world eyes the 2010 Shanghai World Expo scheduled to open on May 1, experts say that Yeosu needs to take a lesson from the Shanghai Expo organizers, who have been actively communicating with city planners and officials all over the world through hosting 80 domestic and international forums since last year, with a focus on the theme "Better City, Better Life."
The aim of active global communication is to maximize promotional effects for the Shanghai Expo.
To publicize Yeosu, Korea is set to make the best of the Shanghai Expo as a showcase of Korea's cultural, business and IT merits.
Seoul invested some $35 million to build a Korean Pavilion, spanning an area of nearly 7,700 square meters, and it is one of the 12 largest.
Korea's participation in the Shanghai World Expo is the largest to date in its world expo experiences since it first took part in the Paris World Expo in 1889, organizers said.
The Lee Myung-bak administration has pledged full backing for the preparations, but provincial officials have been complaining that budgetary limitations have continued to hold back the construction of essential infrastructures like additional freeways and world-class hotels.
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said that the completion of several major infrastructure plans, including new railways, highways and port facilities, have been delayed until the latter half of 2012.
Designed to improve accessibility to Yeosu from other parts of the country, the projects were initially supposed to be completed before the Expo opening.
Yeosu is expecting around 800 million visitors during the 90-day event.
According to a regional civic group, city officials and Expo organizers have been seeking the establishment of 10 new premium hotels in the area, but the plans have been on hold due to lack of state funding.
The central government has been hesitant about such plans, citing "unclear post-Expo prospects for profitability."
Still, officials and residents hope that the Expo will be an impetus for the province's transformation into a comprehensive international marine leisure town.
One of the world's largest events after the Olympics Games and the FIFA World Cup, the Expo has been held since the mid-19th century. The Yeosu Expo will be held from May 12, 2012 to Aug. 12, 2012.