An acute shortage in bedrooms in Seoul attracts investors to the South Korean capital. Although it might be difficult to find a room those days, the situation should –slightly- improve before the end of the year.
SEOUL- “It will be difficult to find a room in Seoul this month of June as the city is almost sold out. And I must confess that it happens more and more over the entire year”, says confidentially Maureen O’Crowley, Vice President of Seoul Convention Bureau. The hosting of large international events over the last decade, the repositioning of Seoul as a trendy and environment-friendly city –especially following its designation in 2010 as a UNESCO World Design Capital combined to the K-Pop craze sweeping youngsters all across Southeast Asia fill up aircraft and hotel rooms. The dearth of hotel rooms in Seoul is turning serious, with the government estimating the shortage at least around 15,000 rooms. Seoul’s current total number of hotel rooms is around 29,000, according to Maureen O’Crowley.
But with an estimated 11 million tourists to the capital in 2012 and an average annual growth of visitors of 6% per annum, the shortage can only get worse in the years to come, , tourism boom that has seen visits to Seoul jump 30% over the past five years has not been matched by the 8% growth in the number of hotel rooms, according to data recently released by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The city is looking to boost capacity. “We are expecting to see 9,000 rooms coming into the market over the next three years”, indicates O’Crowley.
Some 40 hotels with a total of 6,312 rooms are now under development (new construction or remodeling) while another 46 projects with a capacity for 15,000 rooms have been submitted and are waiting for approval. Most of these hotels are expected to be available by early 2018. This is still six years ahead!
Last September, Sheraton opened a 269-room property and Stanford a 239-room in October. Some projects are due to soon be completed. Accor Group, currently Korea’s largest international operator of hotels with 10 properties and 2,800 rooms, opened already its Mercure Ambassador Gangnam last February. It will be followed by the Ibis Ambassador Insadong in February 2013 and the much expected Novotel Ambassador Seongbuk in 2016. The three new hotels will add a total of 948 rooms to Seoul.
Among the new hotels to be opened to the public before the end of the year is the spectacular Conrad Seoul with 446 rooms in Yeouido-Dong, a financial district dubbed as Seoul’s Manhattan as well as the JW Marriott Jung-Do. Another new entrant into Seoul’s hotel market is Lotte City Hotel Gimpo integrated to a new shopping mall in Southwest Seoul will provide additional space with 200 bedrooms. The city is also looking at remodeling former or ageing shopping malls into hotel facilities. Such project is currently taking place at the Migliore Shopping Mall in Myeong-dong district as well as at the Cerestar Shopping Mall in Dongdaemun. By 2015, these two shopping malls will have given way to two hotels with 300 rooms on average. Seoul Metropolitan Administration will also implement a new law which will simplify approval procedures in hotel construction. The law should be implemented by this coming July.
Table: Total number of international standard hotels in 2011 Seoul
|
Classification |
Number of hotels |
Number of rooms |
|
Five Stars |
20 |
9,444 |
|
Four Stars |
22 |
5,422 |
|
Three Stars |
34 |
3,954 |
|
Two Stars |
21 |
1,272 |
|
Others |
36 |
5,594 |
|
TOTAL |
133 |
25,686 |
(Source: Seoul Convention Bureau)
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
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