Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming JUly 2015 14 Feature In Focus is proposing—for example Seven Luck COEX [at the convention center in Seoul’s fashionable Gangnam district]. But do tourists visit Korea to specifically experience the COEX facility?” KORE Policy & Management Consulting General Manager Tim Lee asks. “The same question would yield a different answer for Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands or the City Center at Las Vegas.” Natural Wonder Most of South Korea’s potential integrated resort developers have a site for their casino. The local subsidiary of Enrique Razon Jr’s Bloomberry Resorts has a natural spectacle. Bloomberry, owner of Solaire Resort and Casino in Manila, has purchased Silmi Island, a 20.96 hectare (51.8 acre) uninhabited tract, and 12.2 hectares facing it on Muui Island, a small beach resort off Yeongjong, the island that’s home to Incheon International Airport. Twice a day, the eight meters (26 feet) of water flow out of the 150 meter channel separating the two islands that have been used as shooting locations in Korean television productions. Their charms attract up to 750,000 visitors during the peak season running May to September, drawn by relatively pristine beaches and stunning scenery. “When I saw this place, I wanted to build a resort here,” Solaire Resort Korea Chairman and CEO David Shim says as he walks the site that’s part of the Incheon Free Economic Zone. Manila’s Bloomberry links islands and strategies with beach resort proposal South Korea already has 16 foreigners-only casinos, plus the remote Kangwon Land casino where Koreans may play that has greater revenue than all the foreigners-only casinos combined. The offer of two additional licenses reportedly drew nearly three dozen IR proposals for South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to evaluate. South Korea at Grand Hyatt, will showcase Korean culture. “The complex will take advantage of Korea’s advanced technologies and hallyu and will have a theme park using 3D hologram technology, a hallyu star museum, Korean restaurants and art galleries,” Paradise revealed at the groundbreaking. “Visitotrs will be able to experience a Korean public bathhouse, or jjimjilban , at the premium healing spa.” TOO SMALL? The question remains whether that kind of resort, at that construction price point, will be enough to attract more players from northern China and beyond. “When one really thinks about it, we already have the small foreigners-only IRs that the ministry Jeju