By Park Hyong-ki
Staff Reporter
Kangwon Land, an operator of a casino, hotel and golf courses based in Gangwon Province, said its sales are expected to top one trillion won for the first time in its history. Its sales were 870 billion won in 2006.
Kangwon Land's CEO Cho Ki-song said during a press conference that the company will also pay the biggest-ever dividend to shareholders this year ― 50 percent of its net profit, compared with 43 percent the previous year. He did not elaborate further.
Cho said Kangwon Land will expand its non-casino businesses to attract at least an average of five million tourists annually by 2010.
He added the company needs to act fast in boosting its non-casino infrastructures such as ski slopes, water parks, hotels, condos and golf courses to compete with regions such as Singapore and Macao.
But he said that the government needs to ease regulations governing this line of business to offset the country's rising tourist deficit.
``We need to overcome the negative views about casinos,'' said Cho. ``Compared with other countries, Korea lacks in the tourism industry for casinos, as it is the most heavily regulated business compared with other countries.''
The majority of Kangwon's revenue comes from its casino operations ― the only one open to Koreans.
Cho said it is time to transform the company into a ``family resort'' where visitors can enjoy a variety of one-stop entertainment services.
The company plans to invest 42.5 billion won in building a water park and spas; 218.4 billion won in new condos; and 1.27.9 billion won in hotels by 2009. Highways reaching the casino resort are being expanded as well.
With the opening of ski slopes this season, Kangwon expects the number of guests to reach 3.2 million by the end of next month.
But still, the chief executive said that further efforts are needed in luring foreign tourists as they only account for a mere 3 percent of the total.
``If you look at the Kangwon resorts from a global perspective, it is not yet suitable in servicing foreign guests,'' said Cho.
To this end, he stressed that the company first needs to grow organically to boost services, and re-emphasized the need for the government to ease regulations in the development of casino and other resorts.
``Singapore is investing over seven trillion won in developing casino resorts. If regulations prevent us from moving forward, it will result in a lot more Koreans going abroad,'' said Cho.
The company's Chief Financial Officer Ko Byoung-soon said Koreans are spending about 500 billion won annually in overseas casinos, fueling the tourism deficit further.
``After organic and capital growth, the company plans to venture into Vietnam, Cambodia and Mongolia,'' Ko said.
Kangwon is also looking to develop video and online games with overseas companies.