Kangwon Land Inc, operator of Kangwon Land, a resort with the only casino in South Korea that is open to locals, has told GGRAsia it is willing to pay the equivalent of about US$7.00 per player to overseas travel agencies able to bring it customers for a foreigner-only gaming zone it has.
While best-known for its unique status as a venue for locals, Kangwon Land’s management has increasingly been eyeing overseas players amid what it says is neighbouring gaming jurisdictions targeting South Korean players as customers.
Kangwon Land Inc gave the information on incentives for overseas travel agents to GGRAsia via email, in response to our enquiry.
It followed the property hosting a signing ceremony, on April 21, with 37 travel agencies drawn from a variety of regional markets including the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The aim is to boost the Kangwon Land resort’s marketing network.
The incentives mentioned to GGRAsia in the follow-up on the signing ceremony were split into two areas: for agents able to fill its hotel rooms; and for agents able to supply gaming clients from overseas. Only room incentives would apply to agents from the Chinese mainland.
Agent incentives for filling more than 200 rooms are put at KRW10,000 (US$7.24 currently) per room for the spring and autumn seasons; and KRW5,000 per room for the summer and winter seasons.
According to the resort’s website, it has a 924-room capacity for its hotel towers. That is split between three facilities: the Grand Hotel main tower and the convention tower; and the Palace Hotel. The resort also has three condominium properties, mostly with larger units to accommodate groups of people.
Incentives to agencies for attracting players to the resort’s foreigner-only gaming zone were put at KRW10,000 per zone visitor, and KRW10,000 per “guide” accompanying such players. For example, if one agency guide invites five visitors, the house’s incentives payable to that guide would be KRW60,000.
Agents achieving a threshold of introducing 1,000 visitors to the resort’s foreigner-only gambling zone would be entitled to a KRW10 million incentive payment. Incentive money would rise in increments of KRW10 million for each additional cohort of 1,000 visitors introduced to the foreigner zone.
What were termed “game coupons” for players would also be made available by the house.
Foreigner-only gaming zone facilities
The property’s “K-HIT 1.0” initiative – a general revamp of operations – was outlined in April last year, with a master plan due to be updated by August this year.
The resort’s management spoke to GGRAsia last year of its plan to pull in more overseas players. It has a foreigner-exclusive play zone, though some of its overseas customers opt to gamble on the main floor.
As of last year, the foreigner gaming area had a KRW100,000 maximum bet, equivalent to circa US$69.
Subsequently, the resort’s management tripled the foreigner zone maximum bet to KRW300,000. On February 6, it pushed the maximum bet in that part of the floor to KRW20 million. It has a target eventually of pushing the upper level as high as KRW300 million.
The information on changes, including bet maximums, was given to GGRAsia on a recent site visit, from a manager from the overseas marketing team, who asked not to be identified by name.
The person said: “Such effort marks the first regulatory relaxation for Kangwon Land in 14 years.”
Earlier this month, Kangwon Land Inc said it had received government approval to raise minimum betting limits on a number of gaming tables on the property’s VIP and mass-market areas.
The foreigner-only zone is located on the ground floor, near to the mass gaming floor. Players must show a foreign ID document to gain entry. It has eight tables. Of those, three are for baccarat, three are for blackjack, one for sic bo, and one for roulette. It doesn’t have slots.
The special zone received a few dozen foreign players daily, a small part of its total clientele, noted the marketing manager, adding that the hold rate on table games there was harder to quantify than for domestic players on the main floor.
Package-break deals for overseas gamblers
Another company official, Kim Hyukha, general manager for casino operations, separately told GGRAsia of a plan to boost the marketing to foreign tourists of winter sports at the resort, packaged together with casino services in “ski and casino” offers. Mr Kim said that until now only “modest” efforts had been made in that direction.
Mr. Kim stated that currently most foreign players that attend are frequent visitors. They included Westerners, African customers, and Asian ones – including a few Chinese people, but the latter are “not major players,” he added.
The overseas marketing official told GGRAsia the resort had established direct sales networks in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan and is exploring further markets.
As part of its work to appeal to overseas visitors, the complex has been making use of its capacity to stage international-level non-gaming events.
An example was the “Asia Model Festival 2024”, held at the High1 Resort Convention Center Main Hall at the complex, from October 30 to November 2 last year. The event, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, aimed to promote fashion models from the Asia region, as well as aspects of the region’s fashion and beauty industries.
The marketing official noted there were 500 participants drawn from 25 nations.
In other moves, during December, Kangwon Land received 1,000 travellers via four charter flights from Manila, in the Philippines, and plans to expand the number of guests coming from the Philippines under that initiative, to 5,000 this year.
Such efforts raised international tourist arrivals to Kangwon Land by 417 percent year-on-year to circa 62,000 in 2024, from about 12,000 in 2023.
Under the K-HIT 1.0 initiative, a second casino venue that will be available to locals is under construction, as part of a KRW179.6 billion investment. The second casino is due to be finished by December 2027.
Mr Kim said that via the K-HIT 1.0 plan, the aim was to triple the size of the complex, adding shopping and theatre space. Under K-HIT 1.0, an all-season outdoor pool for the hotel is due to open before the end of this year.
A west-east highway, that will ultimately link Seoul – via the country’s central Gangwon Province, the home of Kangwon Land – to the east-coast city of Samcheok, has already had the Seoul-Gangwon stretch launched.
That latter portion is due to reduce travel time to Kangwon Land, from Seoul, to between three hours and two-and-a-half hours.
The venue’s promoter Kangwon Land Inc expects that will help the resort to attract 10 million people per year, up from 6 million currently.
