The central business district of Yuseong, in South Korea's fifth largest city Daejeon, will see some exciting development over the next few years, Business Traveller was told by its mayor Hong-chul Yum. These include a five-star, 312-room Lotte Hotel, which will be built adjacent to the Daejeon Convention Center.
"We are in the prelimenary stage of opening Lotte Hotel, which is to be completed by early March 2014," said Yum. "In the same area, right beside this development, we plan to build two medium-sized business hotels." This will create a convenient business park where people can stay and attend conventions or conferences with ease. There is also a shopping mall in the vicinity, and there are plans for a Lotte World theme park to be built in place of what is currently the Expo Exhibition Hall, much like the theme park found in Seoul and built by the same home-grown company (see story in sister publication Mix here).
"In association with Lotte we are planning to establish the largest combination theme and amusement park in Asia, and we are currently in the administrative stage of the project," Yum explained. The opening date for the 590,000 sqm theme park is set at 2015.
The city, located in the heart of the country, is only 50 minutes away from Seoul by high-speed train. Its economy focuses on tertiary industry, with IT being one of the fast growing sectors. It also has high-quality medical facilities and the government is keen to develop medical tourism there.
To read more about Lotte Hotel Group, see "Regional Players" in the October issue of Business Traveller Asia-Pacific. To subscribe, click here.
For further information, visit www.lottehotelworld.com and www.daejeon.go.kr.
Alex Andersson
