Busan, South Korea-
Pattaya City Mayor Poramese Ngampiches and members of his leadership team have traveled to Busan, South Korea over this week to engage with Busan city leaders on tourism best practices.
The visit took place due to the two cities sharing a lot in common with millions of domestic and foreign tourists, many kilometers of beaches, regular events to draw and attract tourists, and tourism being the main driver of their economies.
In particular, Pattaya City leaders were looking to learn about possibilities to become a world class UNESCO film city. Pattaya is starting to explore more movie and film related events, including Movie on the Beach in June.
Pattaya was also recognized for its popularity as a night tourism and entertainment hotspot with Busan learning from Pattaya’s success in this area.
Busan has seen an influx of foreign tourists recently due to strategic event planning such as utilizing soft power, like K-pop, to host major events and draw visitors. Pattaya is hoping to do the same and expand from events primarily aimed at only domestic tourists and Thai nationals to those with a global level of interest from foreigners as well. One recent example was the very successful Rolling Loud festival.
Both cities also host international fireworks festivals and are exploring drone festivals with Pattaya holding a successful event in this regard just last week.
The cities hope to take their best practices and learn from each other to maximize tourism for the future in each respective city. Photo credit Pattaya City Mayor.
