Seoul is most popular city amongst asian travellers

South Korea's capital Seoul has been named the most desirable city in a survey of Southeast Asian travelers. According to a poll conducted in November 2010 and January 2011 by Nielsen in China, Japan and Thailand, some of the region's largest outbound markets, Seoul topped the rank of destinations Asians most want to visit within a year.

The March 14 announcement is a welcome piece of good news for the city, which has hit the headlines several times over the past year because of tense relations with the neighboring North, although that doesn't appear to have affected visitor numbers, which rose 12.7 percent year-on-year to to 8.8 million in 2010.

Seoul's close proximity to its neighbors appears to be playing a strong part in its appeal, with 65.2 percent of Japanese travelers saying that the geographic locations makes them want to visit, and a third of Chinese travelers agreeing. This, combined with the rapidly growing wealth of China's population, is producing something of a boom for Seoul, which saw the number of Chinese tourists rocket 40 percent last year.

Source: The Independent