G3-247 Report SOUTH KOREA
Traditionally it has been supported by agriculture and fishing although tourism has taken a more important role in recent years. The Chinese are the biggest visitor group as since 2006 Jeju has had the autonomy to grant visa free access to citizens on mainland China and the number of Chinese tourists has increased. However the Chinese still need a visa their end to leave the country.
Last year 2.3 million foreign tourists visited Jeju island with Chinese visitors accounting for around 78 per cent. Domestic visitors totalled 8.5 million last year. The island has eight casinos and many say this is over satu- ration in a market catering only for foreign tourists.
There have been many suggestions to help Jeju island. One idea was to allow domestic players into one casino on the island, another is to open up the whole island to domestic players thus creating a mini Macau. In total there are around 300 slots and 150 tables on the island.
Ministry officials say to permit local residents into casi- nos would require a national consensus and yet others believe this is only a matter of time. Foreign investors will certainly call for permitting local entry.
The Chinese bring in big money to the local casinos. It is reported the average Chinese party bets about $40,000 per person in the VIP rooms.
The Paradise Group for example posted ₩170.5bn 5 6
($166.8m) in sales in the first quarter this year up 17.7 per cent on the same period a year ago. Its net profit reached ₩47.3bn up a whopping 71.8 per cent. The robust performance is said to be from almost 38 per cent rise in drops by Chinese VIPs at the company’s casinos.
GKL recorded ₩139.1bn in sales during the first quarter a rise of 5.5 per cent also thanks to Chinese tourists. Meanwhile Kangwon Land’s operating profit mean- while rose 16 per cent to ₩137.6bn in the first quarter with sales rising nine per cent to ₩373.3bn.
Last year the government began to look at the possibili- ty of foreigner only casinos on South Korean based cruise ships in a bid to boost both the cruise and casino industries.
At the moment there are strict laws banning casinos onboard ships and for most cruise liners casinos are essential for their survival as 20 to 50 per cent of their income comes from gambling onboard.
Korea’s first cruise ship was launched in 2012 but shut down a year later due to a drop in profits without the ability to offer a casino.
Harmony Cruise was launched in January 2012 to offer tours from the southeast city of Busan to Japanese cities but closed in December after financial problems.
01 Caesers Entertainnment Corporation joined with Indonesian conglomerate, Lippo Company to build a casino on Yeongjongdo Island, part of a free economic zone near to Incheon Airport west of Seoul. The cost will be around $2.2bn in total with first stage of the project to be completed by 2018 and final by 2023.
02 Incheon Airport is a just a two hour flight from many major Chinese cities. However Korea then needs to look at making Yeongjongdo Island a regional gambling hub to lure Chinese tourists and will have to consider building more high class resorts around the airport.
The ship catered for up to 1,000 passengers and had many other facilities such as swimming pool, theatre, fit- ness club and kids clubs.
There are predicted to be seven million cruise passengers in all of Asia by 2020 and four million of these will be Chinese. Around half are expected to visit Jeju.
Of the 2.2 million foreign tourists visiting Jeju island last year (of a total of 10 million) some 400,000 came via cruise ships. The industry is booming and it is thought this figure could reach two million by 2020.
In a bid to capitalise and nurture home grown cruise ship operators the government is pushing to pass a bill through National Assembly which will support the con-
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