Grand Korea Leisure (GKL) said the number of visitors to its three casinos surpassed 1 million as of Aug. 26, 23 days earlier than last year, GKL said on Oct. 7.
The company said the number of daily visitors to its three Seven Luck Casinos amounted to around 4,900 from January to May, but the number started to slow from June with the outbreak of MERS. In June, visitors totaled 3,200 and fell to 2,500 in July due to MERS. From the end of July, visitors began to increase with the contagious disease stopped in its tracks. The number of daily visitors increased again to 3,500 in August.
As of Aug. 26, the number of visitors totaled 1.002 million, up 12 percent year-on-year. Sales revenue came matched the year before, with the average visitors picking up the slack for the number of VIP visitors. The accumulated average revenue per visitor from January to August came to around 300,000 won.
Acting President Lee Jae-kyung said the Seven Luck Casinos have been making efforts to be a leisure hub, where the general tourists can also enjoy its public spaces for entertainment, not only a destination for VIP visitors. The fact that the number of the visitors to the three Seven Luck Casinos has already passed the 1 million mark, despite the all kinds of woes, attests to the fact that they achieved what they had set out to.
GKL will continue to make efforts to attract as many visitors possible by connecting its promotional campaigns and events with regional hotels across the country, MICE Alliance Member Companies and incentive travel-related organizations, all directed at group visitors. They will place emphases on promoting return trips to the facilities.
In the meantime, GKL, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, won the $500 Million Tourism Promotional Tower Award during the ceremony for the 42nd Tourism Day on Sept. 15 at Coex in Seoul.
It was for a first for a casino operator in Korea. GKL won the $300 million Tourism Promotional Tower Award in 2008 and the $400 million Tourism Promotional Tower Award in 2012.
GKL attracted 1.57 million visitors to its casinos in 2014 earning $507.3 million, winning recognition for making contributions to the tourism development in Korea and earning foreign exchange for the country’s economy. Last year, 14.2 million foreign tourists visited Korea, which shows one in 10 of those tourists tried their luck in the GKL casinos.
The $500 million revenue is equivalent to sales of 24,286 medium-priced sedans or 544,300 smartphones.
In terms of the foreign exchange earning ratio, autos and smartphones come in at 71 percent and 52 percent, respectively, while the same ratio for casinos is around 92 percent.
Included among the award winners for making contributions to the development of tourism in Korea was GKL’s casino operator headquarters in Seoul, Kim Hyung-jik, who won the Industrial Merit Bronze Medal for his contributions to the development of casinos in Korea throughout his 35-year long service in the industry.
GKL Acting President Lee Jae-kyung said Seven Luck has been working to turn themselves around as a leisure space for general tourists, too, and as a result, the casinos earned $500 million in foreign exchange for the first time among casino operators in Korea, while increasing the number of the casino visitors.
GKL will be at the forefront of using culture to create new tourism contents to boost Korea’s tourism brand.
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A view of Seven Luck Casino, one of three such casinos that GKL operates around the country.(Photos:GKL)
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