JEJU-DO < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL=Yonhap News) Starwood will open four more hotels in Korea by 2019 and advance into Jeju, said Nichlas Maratos, vice president of sales for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Asia Pacific at a company event held in Seoul on Aug 4th.

"We are currently running five hotel brands in Seoul and plan to bring new brands to Korea," he said.

Hotels planned to open in Korea are Aloft Myeongdong, Four Points Seoul Gangnam , Sheraton Daegu, and Sheraton Busan.

The vice president also said that the International hotels and resort chain can additionally open both high-end and business hotel brands in Korea.

"We project business hotels will exhibit steady growth as they are enjoying growing demand and can be placed in multiple locations in a city," he further elaborated.

He held positive view on the domestic tourism market in Korea.

"Last year, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) took a toll on the Korea's inbound tourism but things have turned around. We had more number of tourists in the first half of this year compared to last year," said the sales executive.

"Korea's outbound tourism market also has a great potential as around 80% of Koreans are passport holders. We are trying to attract Korean tourists traveling within the nation," he added.

He remained cautious on the growing uncertainties arising from China's restriction on commercial visa and Korea's increasing dependency to China in tourism saying that "it remains to be seen."

"If things get worse, hotels will likely to take a hit as majority of foreign visitors are Chinese. In the long run, we need to strive further to attract tourists from other countries," he said.

dylee@yna.co.kr

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