Ki-Han Kim, Professor, Department of Physical Education, Seoul National University
The 2024 Seoul International Sports and Leisure Exhibition (SPOEX 2024) will be held at COEX in Seoul, Korea, from April 22 to 25 for four days. SPOEX 2024 is the largest sports industry exhibition in Korea and a leading global exhibition and exchange platform classified as one of the three major sports industry exhibitions in Asia along with China Sports Show in China and SPORTEC in Japan. This year’s SPOEX will be held as an expanded version of the exhibition that was canceled and reduced due to COVID-19 in previous years.
SPEOX 2024, which will capture the present and future of the K-Sports industry, will feature a total of 350 domestic and international sports companies, including those that won the Technology Innovation Award at CES 2024, the world’s largest consumer electronics and IT expo held last month in Las Vegas, USA.
There will also be special pavilions promoting new professional sports such as PBA (billiards) and H-League (handball), and an Olympic and Paralympic Pavilion where visitors can experience Olympic legacies and new sports (breaking, sport climbing) in honor of the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. To support companies’ recruitment and job hunting activities, a sports industry job fair will be held with more than 50 sports companies, and various industry-academia-industry forums related to sports convergence and convergence technologies will be held. In addition, export consultations with overseas buyers will be held to help domestic companies explore overseas markets.
According to the latest Sports Industry Survey released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the sales volume of the K-Sports industry is expected to exceed KRW 78 사설토토 trillion in 2022, a 22.3% year-on-year growth. This is higher than the average sales growth rate of 15.1% for domestic industries, showing that the K-Sports industry is a promising future industry that will lead Korea’s economy and soft power.
SPOEX 2024 is expected to be an international exchange event that introduces trends in the sports industry at the forefront of the K-Sports industry and promotes technology transfer and communication between companies. Through SPOEX 2024, we hope that the growth potential and innovation of the K-Sports industry will mature to the next level, and that the sports industry, which is the future growth engine of Korea and is experienced by ordinary citizens every day, will be further developed.
