Seoul has secured a bid to host a total of 40 international conferences, which are expected to draw some 35-thousand visitors. 

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Wednesday that of those meetings, 12 are large-scale gatherings that will see the participation of more than one-thousand people. 

Among the 40 meetings are the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s international symposium and the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research’s Asia-Pacific conference, both set for 2020. 

According to the Union of International Associations, which releases statistics on international conferences held worldwide, Seoul ranked third in terms of hosting the most international meetings for three straight years from 2015 to 2017. Singapore came in first followed by Brussels. 

A government official said that the preference to hold international gatherings in Seoul is surging amid growing interest toward inter-Korean summits and thanks to the expanding influence of the Korean Wave.