GGRAsia – Grand Hyatt brand chosen for new Jeju casino project

Grand Hyatt brand chosen for new Jeju casino project

Aug 30, 2017 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

The promoter of a new foreigner-only casino project on Jeju Island, South Korea, says it has chosen the Grand Hyatt hospitality brand as its hotel partner.

Lotte Tour Development Co Ltd stated in a Monday press release it had signed that day a hotel services agreement with Hyatt Hotels Corp for the Jeju Dream Tower scheme (pictured in a rendering).

It said Grand Hyatt Jeju would have 1,600 all-suite rooms, 11 restaurants and bars, and “world-class hotel amenities and recreational facilities”.

Hyatt Hotels’ portfolio includes 731 properties in 56 countries, according to the firm’s corporate website. According to Monday’s announcement, Hyatt Hotels operates more than 40 properties in mainland China, including more than 10 Grand Hyatt hotels. Chinese visitors will be a key target segment of customer for the resort, said its promoter.

The new hotel will be Hyatt Hotels’ sixth property in South Korea and is expected to be the second-largest Grand Hyatt hotel in the world, the hospitality firm said in a separate press release.

Jeju Dream Tower would “create over 3,000 jobs including hoteliers and casino dealers, and contribute tens of billions of Korean won to Jeju Tourism Promotion Fund every year,” said Kim Ki-byung, chairman of Lotte Tour Development, as quoted in the press statement.

The firm had earlier said it had raised KRW40 billion (US$35.4 million) toward the scheme by issuing convertible bonds via a third-party placement.

The venture is described as a South Korea-China co-development project in which Lotte Tour Co and China real estate firm Greenland Group are the main partners. China State Construction Engineering Corp is the contractor, supplying what the promoter said was an unconditional completion guarantee with an 18-month line of credit.

Construction started in May 2016 and will be completed in September 2019, according to the backers.

Questions have been raised however by investment analysts regarding the status of future investments by Chinese companies in overseas gaming projects. An announcement reported on August 18 from China’s State Council – the main administrative body of the People’s Republic of China – indicated that the overseas “gambling” sector would be on a “banned” list as far as Chinese investors were concerned.