Business Hotel Opens In Pusan

<I>Pusan, Korea</I> - The country's second largest city is set to get a shot in the arm on the corporate travel front now that the Hotel Lotte Pusan is ready for business. The 806-room property, which opened in March, offers a downtown location, business-class amenities and state-of-the art meeting facilities.

The first property to open in several years in this port city, "the Lotte is also the only deluxe hotel downtown," said Henry Kim, Los Angeles-based regional director of Lotte Hotels.

Catering primarily to business travelers, the hotel features two executive floors offering complimentary breakfast and cocktails, as well as a fax machine in each room.

For meetings, the hotel includes a ballroom that can hold up to 2,000 theater style and 1,500 people for banquets; 10 other meeting rooms of various sizes can accommodate between 50 and 300, theater style. Equipment includes an eight-language simultaneous interpretation system.

Even if rooms fill up quickly at the Lotte, Pusan offers several other lodging options.

"Pusan is a major port, and much of the business travel is based on that," Kim said. "Although the Lotte has a location advantage, there are already more than enough hotel rooms, and rates are about 20 percent lower than similar hotels in Seoul.