As many as 1.52 million people are expected to descend on Seoul next year for World Youth Day (WYD) and the K-culture festival Phenomenon, putting the city's lodging market on alert. With the average occupancy rate at Seoul accommodations already at 84.5% — the share of available rooms actually sold — industry watchers warn of a severe room shortage during next year's major events.
According to the tourism industry and the Seoul WYD organizing committee on the 31st, 400,000 people from abroad and another 100,000 from within South Korea will gather in Seoul for the 41st World Youth Day, set for August next year. Counting attendees at the closing Mass, the total could reach 1 million. Organized by the Catholic Church, it is the world's largest youth gathering, and interest is expected to run high given rising global attention to K-culture.
The Korea Culture and Tourism Institute projects that "2027 Phenomenon," to be held in December next year at Changdong Arena in Seoul and KINTEX in Goyang, will draw a total of 520,000 visitors, including 200,000 from overseas. The Popular Culture Exchange Committee is presenting the event with the stated goal of building a K-pop festival that surpasses Coachella, the largest music festival in the U.S.
The combined turnout would far exceed that of the BTS concert held in Busan in March. That event drew 110,000 people to Busan, including 64,000 from abroad. A simple comparison puts the two events at up to 1.52 million people, or 13.8 times the Busan concert.
The problem is that Seoul's current lodging capacity cannot absorb the demand such large-scale events would generate. According to lodging data analytics firm Robin Company, Seoul had an estimated 88,199 rooms in 2024, counting hotels and condominiums, motels and inns, serviced residences, hostels and urban homestays. With the average occupancy rate at 84.5%, only 13,670 rooms go unsold on a typical day. Given that new hotel supply in Seoul has run at roughly 1,000 rooms a year since 2023, capacity falls far short of accommodating the foreign visitors expected to come to South Korea for these events through 2027.
The WYD organizing committee and the Seoul Metropolitan Government plan to provide lodging and meals for about 500,000 people using homestays, Catholic parishes, schools and gymnasiums. Still, individual demand from accompanying family members, clergy and reporters could flow to hotels and guesthouses. Room demand is also expected to surge during Phenomenon. Even assuming the 200,000 foreign visitors each stay an average of four nights, two to a room, about 36,000 rooms a day would be needed. On top of that, foreign tourists unrelated to the events continue to increase, making a shortage unavoidable, observers say.
Industry officials argue that new hotel construction alone cannot meet demand from large events, and that regulations should be eased so existing facilities — sharing-economy lodging, homestays and university dormitories — can be used to the fullest. One option under discussion is temporarily relaxing residency requirements and restrictions on domestic guests during the events for registered urban homestay businesses for foreign tourists, which already meet registration, insurance, fire safety and sanitation standards. Others say unregistered sharing-economy lodgings should be given a window to legalize, bringing rooms that meet safety standards into the formal supply.
An official in the lodging industry said, "Now that the government has decided to consolidate oversight of the lodging business under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, it needs to move quickly to overhaul registration and safety standards." The official added, "Even before the system is revamped, there is a need to urgently consider using sharing-economy lodging and idle facilities that have been verified as safe during major events."
