Neuf vies à Séoul: Seoul Findings

I am glad I am not the author of CNN Go -Travel Asia's article '50 reasons why Seoul is the world's greatest city'.

At first sight, it seems the title of this article has been voluntarily designed to be as provocative as humorous. But then you are quickly sobered by an explicit subtitle ‘there's a reason Asian tourists have ranked Seoul as their favorite world city three years in a row. Actually, there are 50 of them’.

Just read all the vindictive comments posted by Seoul residents and visitors (Koreans and non Koreans) and you will realize that the art of Destination Branding is hard to master. I am not sure whether that CNNgo’s article has been commissioned/sponsored or not but one thing is sure, few people seem to be satisfied with its content. But probably, those people are not Asian tourists.

For my part, I would say that a good destination branding should give people a sense of ownership and distinction (= My One and Only).

In that case, less is more (since best is the enemy of good and the devil is in the details). Why give 50 reasons while 5 would have been enough ? When you read all those 50 reasons why Seoul is a great city (if not the world’s greatest one) you end up realizing you are just an alien in a metropolis you really do not know or even like. For example, eating live octopus may be an experience I have only had in Seoul but I would not relate it to my own perception of the city I live in.

But then again, my definition of ‘great’ may be significantly different from the Asian tourists’ one.

For me, the attractiveness and uniqueness of Seoul lie on a few things including the fact that Seoul is one of the safest places in the world with low levels of crime, the cleanliness, regularity and convenience of its public transports, the opportunity to interact easily with friendly people you do not know (and also the possibility to be ignored if you want to), the huge number of places where you can indulge in anything at any rate, the limitless energy, creativity (yes, creativity ... and not only for pizza toppings), relentlessness of the Koreans and of course ... the Korean food (bibimbap and galbi being just the tiny tip of a huge iceberg), etc.

Now let me talk about MY Seoul in pictures:

Haechi, the symbol of Seoul