JW Marriott Debuts In Korea

<B>JW Marriott Debuts In Korea</B>

By Judy Jacobs

Korea, which hasn't experienced a great deal of hotel construction in recent years, has seen the first new five-star hotel open in Seoul in more than a decade.

The JW Marriott Hotel, the only five-star hotel to come online in Seoul in the past 12 years, celebrated its grand opening Sept. 1. The 497-room property is part of Central City, Korea's largest shopping, dining and entertainment complex, which also includes a subway station that offers guests a convenient means of negotiating the city without struggling through Seoul's traffic-jammed streets.

"Business traffic will account for 85 percent of the total mix by year-end," said Alan Guignon, the hotel's director of sales and marketing. The meetings that the hotel has booked so far are primarily internationally known high-tech companies, with local, regional and international participants, Guignon added.

The JW Marriott's facilities include a ballroom accommodating up to 800 attendees for banquets and 1,700 for receptions, as well as three meeting rooms accommodating from 60 to 210 for banquets and 180 to 350 for receptions. A boardroom seats 14. Next door, the Millennium Hall conference facility accommodates up to 1,750 for banquets or 3,500 theater style.

What sets the Marriott apart from other Seoul hotels is the Marquis Thermal Spa and Fitness Club, a 100,000-sq.-ft. spa with 17 treatment rooms and staff who administer more than 82 treatments, and a fitness club that includes rock climbing walls, indoor golf driving ranges, squash courts and swimming and scuba diving pools.

The Marriott opened in a city and country on the rebound. "Developments that will impact business travel to Seoul and Korea are the ongoing economic revival from the 1997-8 Asian economic crisis, the upsurge in exports of semiconductors, computers and chips and the eventual normalization of relations with North Korea," Guignon said.

As Korea increasingly becomes a dominant player in the high-tech industry, more international meetings and exhibitions will take place in Seoul, and the re-opening of the COEX (Convention and Exhibition Center) earlier this year has increased the opportunity for such events, Guignon added. The newly expanded COEX is the most recent effort by Korea to expand its offerings to the convention and exhibition industry, with a total of 10 new convention centers planned for this decade.