By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
Seoul plans to expand its foreigner-only casino business in an attempt to attract more international tourists but it is unclear whether the government will give the green light to the plan in view of negative public sentiment.
Due to the public's views against gambling, the plan is only expected to scale up existing casinos in the capital without building new ones.
``It's still in the initial stage,'' a city official said. ``We have been considering what are the proper measures to expand the business.''
The plan is part of efforts to attract more foreign travelers. The city has held a series of tourism campaigns and promotional events with the aim of attracting 12 million inbound tourists to the capital by 2010.
The number of guests to casinos in Seoul has been increasing from 332,000 in 2005 to 698,000 in 2006. The casino business generated sales of 332 billion won last year, up 260 billion won from 2005.
``Many other international cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore have already been establishing casinos for foreign tourists. We will lose our competitiveness in tourism unless we take proper steps,'' the official said.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon also emphasized the importance on the role of casinos in tourism promotion.
``We should take a full advantage of casinos to attract foreign tourists, especially rich Chinese,'' he said in Beijing last month.
But the city has yet to map out detailed plans in the face of the negative public sentiment against gambling after last year's gambling machine scandals.
Currently, only foreigners are permitted to visit three casinos in Seoul _ the Sheraton Walkerhill Grande Hotel, the Millennium Seoul Hilton Hotel and the OakWood Premier Coex Center. Locals are only permitted to use Kangwon Land, the casino in Jeongseon, Kangwon Province.