Cruise ships were leased to serve as makeshift hotels. Foreign delegates and journalists scrambled to reserve rooms amid surging prices. A hall newly built for a gala dinner was ruled unsuitable at the last minute.
These logistical headaches have become a backdrop to this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, forum. An estimated 20,000 people — including President Trump, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and chief executives of multinational firms — are headed to Gyeongju, South Korea, for the weeklong event.
Member nations rotate in hosting the annual gathering. In June last year, South Korea selected Gyeongju as the venue for its rich cultural heritage, hoping to add it to a list of small cities known for hosting an international gathering. Each January, global leaders flock to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum. Come August, Jackson Hole, Wyo., attracts bankers from around the world for its namesake symposium.
One of the main APEC events at Gyeongju kicks off on Wednesday, when Mr. Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae Myung, are scheduled to meet. Mr. Trump is set to meet Mr. Xi on Thursday, on the sidelines of APEC, but the venue remains unclear. Other APEC attendees include the new prime minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, and Jensen Huang, the C.E.O. of the A.I. chip giant Nvidia.
But Gyeongju, a city of 240,000 people in southeast South Korea, lacks the infrastructure to host a major international event. The seat of an ancient kingdom, it is best known for its UNESCO-listed royal tombs, Buddhist temples and pagodas — some more than a thousand years old — strewn throughout the city. Because of that, development there has been strictly regulated.
It does not have an international airport. Nor does it have enough large high-end hotels to accommodate dozens of foreign dignitaries and corporate honchos traveling with huge delegations.
South Korean politics did not help. Six months after designating Gyeongju as the host city, then-President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law and was soon impeached by the National Assembly. Preparing for the APEC summit was not a priority during the ensuing political turmoil, which didn’t subside until the election of Mr. Lee in June.
South Korea, the birthplace of K-pop, hoped to use the gathering in Gyeongju to showcase its cultural roots. But to many traveling there, the first question often was how to get there and where to stay.
“We only had a short time to prepare,” said Hyunjoo Oh, a presidential aide, referring to the new government’s race to renovate old facilities, add new buildings and secure enough lodgings. “The biggest difficulty was that we didn’t have infrastructure ready quickly enough.”
Organizers spent $8 million to help upgrade local hotels, condominiums and corporate workshop centers around Gyeongju with “presidential royal suites.” They managed to provide rooms for all heads of state in Gyeongju. But some of the corporate leaders have to commute to the APEC venue from nearby cities. Struggling to provide enough beds, organizers were even forced to lease two cruise ships, docking them in the nearby city of Pohang to serve as hotels.
Gyeongju had 13,000 rooms within six miles of the APEC venue, most of which were quickly booked. The forum overlapped with the fall tourist season, sending hotel rates skyrocketing. By September, the municipal authorities urged lodging businesses to help the city be remembered “for hospitality, not for price gouging.” They plastered banners around the city with a similar message.
“If you cooperate, we can turn the APEC summit into an opportunity to advertise our city’s dignity and charm and elevate it as a global cultural and tourist city,” said the mayor, Joo Nak-young, in a letter to the businesses.
Securing rooms was not the only hassle. South Korea built a $5.7 million wooden hall inside the premises of the Gyeongju National Museum, intending it for the APEC gala dinner. But last month, the new building was ruled unfit for that purpose because it was too small and didn’t have enough toilets and catering facilities. The gala dinner was assigned to a hotel, and the new building will host less-demanding bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.
Just two years ago, the South Korean authorities faced heavy criticism over the planning of another major, internationally attended event. The 25th World Scout Jamboree, held on reclaimed land on the country’s west coast in 2023, turned into an international debacle following reports of dirty toilets, overflowing trash bins and scouts falling sick in unusually hot weather.
In the wake of martial law and an ongoing trade dispute with Mr. Trump, South Korea can hardly afford any more trouble.
Mr. Lee’s deputy, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, has visited Gyeongju eight times since taking office in July to check on preparations, down to such details as installing A.I.-based translation services and airing the odor out of newly built facilities. Last week, Mr. Kim told reporters that although he initially had doubts about Gyeongju, the city was 99 percent ready.
“For the remaining one percent, God will help us,” he said.
Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea.
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