Seoul's fifth win in a row — and why that's remarkable
For the fifth consecutive year, Seoul has been named Favorite Worldwide City by millennial and Gen Z travelers at the Trazees awards, organized by FXExpress Publications — the company behind Trazee Travel and Global Traveler. The 2026 gala, held in Chicago, saw Seoul beat out Dublin, Hong Kong, London and Athens to earn both a Hall of Fame induction and a rare 'Quint Status' distinction.
The voters are not backpackers on a shoestring. The annual survey captures 25-to-40-year-olds with an average household income of around $210,000 — a demographic that travels with intention and spends generously. That Seoul keeps winning their hearts, year after year, says something worth paying attention to.
What Seoul is actually selling: lifestyle, not landmarks
The old Seoul itinerary was palaces, museums, repeat. Today's visitors are doing something very different. In Seongsu-dong — think of it as Seoul's answer to a Bandra or a Hauz Khas — young travelers browse industrial-chic pop-up boutiques and test Korean skincare before wandering over to Gwangjang Market for mung bean pancakes and spicy rice cakes. By evening, some of those same people are hiking the granite trails of Mount Acha for a sunset view over the city.
This is what Seoul's tourism officials call 'lifestyle tourism' — prioritizing neighborhood rhythms over sanitized, ticketed attractions. The numbers back it up. In 2025, foreign visitor footfall rose 12.1 percent at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, nearly 12 percent on Mount Acha's trails, and over 10 percent each at the vintage markets of Dongmyo and the food stalls of Gwangjang Market, according to data from the Seoul AI Foundation.
The infrastructure holding all of this together is quietly formidable: a reliable public transit grid, smart city systems, and consistently low crime rates. In 2025, Seoul hosted 317 major international association meetings — first in Asia, third globally — while also topping charts for solo travel safety and luxury shopping.
Why this matters for a solo travel audience in India
Indian solo travelers — especially the growing cohort of young professionals heading abroad for the first time — tend to research destinations obsessively before booking. Seoul's sustained popularity offers a useful lens for thinking about what makes a city genuinely welcoming rather than merely photogenic.
Safety infrastructure and public transit are the two factors Seoul's own government credits most for its solo travel appeal, and both are things Indian women travelers in particular weigh heavily when choosing international destinations. A city that ranks first in Asia for solo travel safety is worth noting on that list.
But the deeper lesson is about the kind of travel Seoul is rewarding. The shift from landmark tourism to neighborhood immersion — from the palace gate selfie to a morning at a local market or a trail run through an urban forest — is a mode of travel that feels intuitive to anyone who has explored India's own cities this way. Bengaluru's brewery lanes, Kolkata's para culture, Mumbai's Dharavi craft clusters, Jaipur's gali bazaars: these are all versions of the hyper-local 'lifestyle tourism' that Seoul has turned into a global selling point.
For Indian travelers planning a first trip to East Asia, Seoul offers something reassuring: a mega-city that rewards curiosity over checklists. And for India's own cities, Seoul's five-year run is a case study in what happens when urban culture, food, safety and transit are allowed to work together rather than in spite of each other.