The City of Busan recently selected the HJ Heavy Industries consortium as the qualified bidder for the detailed design of the BEXCO Hall 3 construction project. The total project cost is 290 billion won. The construction period is 50 months from the start of work, with the goal of completing the project by the end of 2030 and opening it in the first half of 2031.
Once the third exhibition hall opens, BEXCO’s total exhibition and conference space will exceed 80,000 square meters. This is comparable to the combined exhibition and conference space of the four centers in Seoul (COEX, COEX Magok, SETEC, and aT Center). By 2032, when all new construction and expansion projects for exhibition and convention centers currently underway nationwide are completed, BEXCO will become the third-largest facility among the nation’s 25 centers, following Goyang KINTEX (330,000 square meters) and the Seoul Jamsil Sports and MICE Complex (120,000 square meters).
With the construction of BEXCO’s Third Exhibition Hall, the total floor area of specialized MICE facilities in the Southeast Region (Busan, Ulsan, and South Gyeongsang Province) is expected to exceed 100,000 square meters. Among the six regional zones nationwide, the Southeast Region is the only one—excluding the Seoul Metropolitan Area—where the total floor area of specialized facilities exceeds 100,000 square meters.
The third exhibition hall will be built on a 24,150-square-meter outdoor parking lot located across from the plaza of BEXCO’s Exhibition Hall 1 and next to the auditorium. The facility will feature a parking garage on the first basement level and exhibition halls with a total area of 17,672 square meters spread across four above-ground floors. In terms of exhibition hall area alone, it will be approximately 70% the size of the existing Hall 1 and 90% the size of Hall 2, making it larger than the combined area of the four exhibition halls at the Incheon Songdo Convensia (17,021 square meters). An official from the Busan Metropolitan City Construction Headquarters stated, “Although we have not yet begun detailed design work, the primary function of Exhibition Hall No. 3 will be as an exhibition space,” adding, “We are also reviewing plans that incorporate the possibility of vertical expansion—such as adding conference rooms on upper floors—to accommodate future event demand.”
The reason Busan is moving forward with the construction of BEXCO’s third exhibition hall is that the utilization rates of the existing first and second exhibition halls have reached their limits. BEXCO, which hosts nearly 1,200 exhibition and convention events annually, has exceeded a 60% utilization rate—a figure widely regarded as the saturation point in the MICE industry—as of 2023. The average utilization rate over the past three years stands at 63%, making it the second-highest among the 20 exhibition and convention centers currently operating nationwide, trailing only Seoul’s COEX, which maintains a rate in the high 70s. Goyang KINTEX, South Korea’s largest exhibition and convention center—with exhibition halls and meeting rooms nearly twice the size of BEXCO’s—recorded a utilization rate in the 60s for the first time last year, marking an increase of approximately 13 percentage points from the previous year.
BEXCO’s high occupancy rate is also reflected in Busan’s track record of hosting international conferences. In the rankings of international conference hosts released recently by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), Busan ranked 49th (50 events) out of 1,797 cities worldwide. With the number of events hosted increasing by nearly 80% compared to the previous year, the city’s ranking surged 39 spots from 88th place. Last year, BEXCO hosted major international conferences with over 1,000 participants, including the “World Family Medicine Association Asia-Pacific Conference,” the “Our Ocean Conference,” and the “World Anti-Doping Agency General Assembly.” On the 19th, the “48th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee” is scheduled to take place, with approximately 3,000 participants, including delegations from 196 State Parties.
The scale of the events being held is also growing. Although the annual number of events—which stood at 1,351 in 2019—decreased by more than 13% last year, the facility’s utilization rate rose from 59% to a record high of 63%. This is the result of existing events growing in scale and an increase in the number of large-scale events being hosted. Among the exhibitions and fairs held at BEXCO—such as the “Busan Mobility Show,” “G-STAR,” “Busan International Machinery Fair,” “Busan International Railway Technology & Industry Exhibition,” and “Marine Week”—there are about 10 large-scale events annually that utilize most of the five exhibition halls in Exhibition Halls 1 and 2 at once.
The “Gadeokdo New Airport,” which the Busan Metropolitan Government is pushing to open in 2035, is expected to significantly improve access to BEXCO. This is because the opening of the new airport—dedicated to international flights—will increase the number of direct routes, shortening travel times from overseas, while Gimhae Airport, which will be converted to domestic-only operations, can help boost domestic demand for BEXCO’s facilities and events.
There are also forecasts that the Haeundae Centum City area—Busan’s busiest commercial district and a major tourist attraction—will emerge as a MICE complex on par with the COEX area in Seoul’s Samseong-dong. The Centum City area in Haeundae-gu, where BEXCO is located, was designated as the “Haeundae International Conference Complex District” by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2020. An official from the Busan Metropolitan City New Airport Promotion Headquarters stated, “We are preparing to establish a rail and road network that will allow travel from the new airport to Haeundae, where BEXCO is located, in under 30 minutes without transfers.”
There are also concerns that Busan could become a “black hole” that monopolizes even international events that might otherwise go to smaller cities in the region. The argument is that, alongside expanding facilities, Busan must strengthen its role as a “hub” that distributes event demand throughout the entire southeastern region.
Professor Kim Bong-seok of Kyung Hee University emphasized, “For BEXCO to maximize the benefits of its facilities and accessibility, it is advisable to prioritize globalization as its primary goal and measure of success.” He added, “To extend these benefits beyond Busan to the entire Southeast region and reduce internal competition for hosting events, it is necessary to segment target events among cities within the region.”
