South Korea will host the 48th meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee next year in the southern port city of Busan. 

The committee selected South Korea as host of the annual gathering during its 47th meeting, at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris on Tuesday.  

This is the first time South Korea will host the session since the committee’s inception in 1977. 

Past Asian host cities include Thailand’s Phuket in 1994, Japan’s Kyoto in 1998, China’s Suzhou in 2004 and Cambodia’s Phnom Penh in 2013.

The 2026 session is scheduled to take place in Busan in July next year. 

The annual event brings together about three-thousand people, including representatives of 196 member nations, UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay, academic experts, and delegates from nongovernmental organizations.