The fourth World Dinosaur Expo will be bigger, better and brighter than its previous editions, organizers said Monday, as they aim to attract a record number of visitors to the successful paleontology franchise.
   
The opening date for the 2016 World Dinosaur Expo has been set for April 1, 2016, and it will run for 52 days in its usual location of Goseong, some 466 kilometers south of Seoul, where the first fossilized dinosaur footprints were discovered in South Korea three decades ago, organizers said.
   
Next to Colorado in the U.S. and the west coast of Argentina, Goseong is known as one of the three largest deposits of fossilized dinosaur footprints on earth.
   
The preliminary theme for the event has been set as "Revived Dinosaurs Show Us Light and Hope," and as such, light will a recurring motif around the venue in Goseong's Danghangpo Tourist Site.
   
Eight indoor exhibition halls will also be renovated to give the exposition a new face, organizers said, adding that they plan to unveil detailed schedules next month.
   
"We're trying to make next year even better than previous years using the know-how we've accumulated over time," said Bin Yeong-ho, secretary-general of the organizing committee.
  

Since its inaugural opening in 2006, the World Dinosaur Expo has been a rare success among events organized by South Korean municipalities.
   
The number of visitors climbed steadily to a record 1.78 million in 2012, and twice as many foreigners, or 90,000, traveled to see the exhibition then as in 2006.
   
In 2012, the organizing committee posted a net profit of 10.7 billion won (US$9.62 million), with the economic effect for Goseong estimated at 220 billion won.
   
The numbers were all the more impressive considering the Yeosu Expo was ongoing at around the same time. The 2012 Yeosu Expo, organized to promote ocean preservation, was the first South Korean event to be recognized by the Paris-based International Exhibitions Bureau since the Daejeon Expo in 1993.
   
To ride on the seeming wave of popularity among foreigners, organizers of the dinosaur expo said they have appointed 19 young individuals from Central Asian countries such as Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to promote the event outside South Korea for next year. (Yonhap)