Busan is good

Busan Selected as Korea’s Candidate City to Host the 48th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in 2026!

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced today (June 30) that it has been selected as the final candidate city to host the 48th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in 2026 through a bid led by the Cultural Heritage Administration.

○ The “World Heritage Committee (WHC)” is an international body with the highest decision-making authority in the field of World Heritage inscription, conservation, and protection, established under the “World Heritage Convention” adopted in 1972.
○ The Convention has 196 States Parties, and the Committee consists of 21 member states. Korea was first elected to the Committee in 1997 and is currently serving its fourth term (2023–2027). The Cultural Heritage Administration is promoting the first-ever hosting of the Committee in Korea in 2026.

The selection of the candidate city was made through the Cultural Heritage Administration’s evaluation of proposals and on-site inspections in preparation for the upcoming designation of the 2026 host country for the World Heritage Committee.

Prior to the official announcement, Busan had already established a strong collaborative network through a bid committee composed of the city’s Cultural Heritage Division, Tourism and MICE Industry Division, and related agencies including the Busan Tourism Organization, BEXCO, and the Busan Institute of Urban Affairs. This enabled the city to respond proactively to the bid process.

○ [Proposal to Host] From the proposal drafting stage, the bid committee engaged in in-depth discussions and submitted the proposal to the Cultural Heritage Administration on June 5. At the proposal presentation on June 10, Lee Jun-seung, Deputy Mayor for Administrative Affairs, expressed the city’s strong intention to host the event. As a result, Busan and Jeju were selected as the two final candidate cities for on-site inspection.

○ [On-Site Inspection] On June 17, when the Cultural Heritage Administration's inspection team arrived in Busan, Mayor Park Heong-joon personally welcomed them and reiterated the city’s commitment to hosting the event. The evaluation team inspected the infrastructure (BEXCO, nearby restaurants and amenities, accommodation facilities), visited major attractions (Nurimaru APEC House, Busan Cinema Center), and national heritage sites (Busan Modern and Contemporary History Museum, UN Memorial Cemetery in Korea), thereby confirming Busan’s long-standing efforts in preserving and utilizing cultural heritage and its strong commitment to World Heritage inscription.

During the inspection, Busan highlighted its role as a city that realizes UNESCO’s core value of “the spirit of peace,” its dedication to preserving national heritage including modern and contemporary cultural heritage, and its excellent infrastructure for hosting international events.

○ The city also actively proposed its potential role as a hub connecting UNESCO World Heritage sites across the southeastern region (Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam), and its linkage with domestic World Heritage tours and related activities.
○ Notably, the support from Busan’s members of the National Assembly, especially those on the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, played a key role, as did the unified efforts of ruling and opposition lawmakers, which were decisive in Busan’s selection as the final domestic candidate city.

Meanwhile, the 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee will be held on July 15 in Paris, France, where the host country for the 48th session will be announced.
○ If Busan is ultimately selected, it is expected to: ▲ expand and strengthen domestic and international networks to support the inscription of “Busan: Wartime Capital during the Korean War” as a World Heritage site; ▲ create opportunities to promote the universal value of Busan’s wartime heritage; and ▲ stimulate the local economy, including tourism and hospitality sectors, through the visit of more than 2,500 participants.

Mayor Park Heong-joon stated, “I am delighted that Busan has been selected as the candidate city to host the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which strives for the conservation and sustainable development of World Heritage,” and added, “We will work closely with the Cultural Heritage Administration to ensure that Busan becomes the ‘Global Cultural Hub City’ where the future of World Heritage is discussed.”