Seoul has been selected as the most enjoyable city for leisure among major cities in Asia.
According to the Seoul Tourism Foundation on the 14th, Seoul was chosen as the top city in the '2025 Leisure Lifestyle Awards' organized by Global Traveler. Seoul, which was ranked 1st in 2023 and 2nd in 2024, reclaimed the 1st position this year, achieving the award for three consecutive years.
Global Traveler is a specialized media outlet for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) with 1.1 million subscribers and 4.7 million monthly website views. It selects travel and leisure cities worldwide based on reader voting.
Seoul ranked first, surpassing Taipei (2nd), Tokyo (3rd), Phuket (4th), and Singapore (5th). This award seems to reflect the international recognition of Seoul's diverse leisure content competitiveness, including K-pop content, shopping and dining, hiking tourism, night tourism, and festivals.
The foundation is strengthening its position as a 'Bleisure' city that combines business and leisure under the slogan 'Seoul: Your complete MICE City.' Recently, it has been implementing multi-faceted strategies such as expanding hiking tourism centers and introducing regional marketing.
The foundation plans to continue discovering leisure content in Seoul and enhance promotional marketing targeting global tourists in light of this award. Earlier in January, Seoul was also named the top city for solo travelers by TripAdvisor.
Gil Gi-yeon, the head of the Seoul Tourism Foundation, said, "Being ranked among the top for three consecutive years means that the world consistently recognizes Seoul's leisure appeal," and "We will continue to enhance the brand value of Seoul as a city where business and leisure coexist."