Holiday Inn Property Draws Corp. Groups To Island Resort
<I>Cheju, Korea</I> - What Time magazine once hailed as one of the world's most remote destinations may be showing up on corporate group itineraries now that Holiday Inn's first property in Korea is open for business.
While Cheju Island, situated 60 miles off the coast of Korea, has become the country's premiere resort destination over the past few years, the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Hotel & Casino is attempting to bring over small meetings and incentives as well.
The hotel opened late last year in Cheju City when the chain took over management of the former Cheju Namseoul Hotel after an extensive renovation and redesign. The 270-room property now boasts meeting space for groups of up to 350, the country's largest casino, three restaurants, a jazz bar, a health club and swimming pool.
The Holiday Inn joins a group of 10 deluxe hotels on Cheju, including the 224-room Hyatt Regency, the only other major international chain property on the island at present. The Hyatt is part of the Chungmun resort development on the southern coast, where plans call for additional hotels, an amusement park and a convention center by the end of the decade.
Cheju is in the midst of an island-wide development boom, with more than 2,500 hotel rooms currently planned.
Among them is one being built by the Lotte group, a Korean-headquartered hotel chain with a sales office in Los Angeles. The property, scheduled to open in late 1999, will have extensive meeting facilities, an 18-hotel golf course, an aquarium, a theme park, a miniature folk village and a casino.
The island also offers a host of team-building activities for incentive groups. Local operator Cheju-Mungch'i has begun leading mountain biking trips up Mt. Hallasan, an extinct volcano and Korea's highest peak. Other activities include a three-mile ocean rafting course-a new activity on Cheju-and hiking, diving, fishing, horseback riding and hunting.
The local government also is planning to increase air accessibility and will begin charter service between Cheju and Shanghai in April. There are now flights to four Japanese cities: Fukuoka, Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo, and the island is well connected to the rest of the country, with 30 Korean Air flights and 14 Asiana flights between Cheju and Seoul each day.