Sales at commercial districts around Seoul Forest and Seongsu-dong rose more than 30% during the 2026 Seoul International Garden Expo compared to normal periods, according to data released by KT (030200) and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The expo opened around Seoul Forest on the 1st of this month.
The de facto population in the Seoul Forest and Seongsu-dong area increased 20.4% during the expo period compared to normal times, while sales at nearby commercial districts grew 31.5%, the data showed.
KT and the Seoul city government analyzed the economic ripple effects of the expo through their jointly developed "Seoul Resident Population Data." By precisely measuring how long visitors stayed, the system mapped the flow from visit to stay to consumption in a multidimensional way, combining the data with de facto population and spending figures.
The expo surpassed a cumulative 2.5 million visitors within 20 days of opening, while the data covered the 10-day opening week (May 1-10). During this period, cumulative visitors totaled approximately 1.56 million. The daily average de facto population was about 42,307, up 28.7% year-on-year and 20.4% from the previous April.
Notably, the weekday de facto population surged 25.1%, far outpacing the weekend increase of 15.3%. The data shows the expo functioned not as a weekend-only event but as a "stay-type festival embedded in daily life." Core visitors were women (54.9%) and people in their 30s (24.0%). Women in their 40s showed the steepest increase. At 2 p.m. on May 1, the opening day, up to 76,000 people gathered around Seoul Forest at once, marking the peak.
Differences in stay patterns between Koreans and foreign visitors were also notable. Among Koreans, the largest share stayed one to two hours (31.7%) during the expo period. Long-term stays of six hours or more declined year-on-year, while short-term stays increased. KT explained this shows expo visitors quickly moved to the nearby Seongsu-dong commercial district after spending time at the venue. In contrast, the share of foreign tourists staying six hours or more rose 2.1 percentage points to 8.5% from 6.4% a year earlier, indicating a clear pattern of tourism-oriented stays involving lodging or in-depth exploration of the city.
KT has built the country's only integrated mobility data system, starting with Seoul de facto population data in 2018, followed by sequential development of living mobility data (purpose of movement) in 2024, and living mobility data (mode of transport) and resident population data in 2025. The data has been freely available to citizens and researchers since the 20th through Seoul's Open Data Plaza and Big Data Campus. It is expected to be widely used for festival and tourism analysis, as well as transportation policy, commercial district analysis, and demand forecasting for public facilities.
