Best Night in Korea Hotel Initiative Ends Up Day Dream
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The government has recently launched a slew of measures to jolt tourism, which it hopes will eventually contribute to the country’s economy as much as cheap cars and semiconductors.
However, now, with the number of foreign visitors actually starting to jump due to the sliding value of the local currency, the government's tourism drive is being exposed as half-baked.
The faltering Korean won has clearly resulted in a larger influx of foreign leisure and business travelers in recent months. Japan accounted for the greater part of the growth, sending nearly 60 percent more tourists to Korea in the recent winter holiday season compared to a year earlier.
This is exactly the situation the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism were waiting for when they jointly launched a domestic hotel chain, ``BENIKEA,'' to win some market share back from established foreign brands such as InterContinental, Hilton, Hyatt and Novotel.
However, just two years into its existence, it's hard to tell whether BENIKEA, which is short for ``best night in Korea,'' is dead or alive. Perhaps the most telling indicator of its health is that it's Web site (www.benikea.com), which accepts reservations for member hotels and has been a central part of promotion efforts for foreign travelers, hasn't been operating for the last two months.
The Korea Tourism Office (KTO), a sub-organization of the Tourism Industry that's been managing the BENIKEA project, is now reportedly considering pulling the plug.
``BENIKEA hotels basically failed to differentiate themselves from motels,'' said Geum Ki-young, a researcher from the Seoul Development Institute.
``The services, facilities and prices were never competitive and a brand image for BENIKEA never existed, and this easily explains the crisis.''
Foreigners have constantly griped about Seoul's high accommodation prices. The city's five-star properties charge about 300,000 won (about $223) per night, a rate that rivals those in Tokyo and Hong Kong, two of the world's most expensive hotel cities, and significantly more than hotels in Shanghai, Taiwan and Singapore.
At the other end of the spectrum are the cheap but often trashy motels, many of them infamous for their poor amenities and shady atmosphere, built for sex-seeking locals rather than foreign travelers.
BENIKEA hotels were supposed to exploit this gap in the hotel market, providing clean and comfortable facilities without the unnecessary frills at about one-third of the prices of rooms at luxury hotels.
The plan was to convert a number of motels and budget hotels to BENIKEA tourists hotels, requiring them to meet certain quality standards and tailor their services for foreigners and charge 30,000 won to 50,000 won per night.
But currently, BENIKEA so far has only 36 member hotels, making a mockery of the government predictions for 300 properties by the end of 2010. And the quick read on the list proves that it's failing to find its niche market.
With the lack of interest becoming apparent among budget properties, BENIKEA began accepting luxury hotels as members to maintain its pulse, thus falling out of the price range of many cost-conscious travelers.
About 10 of the 36 BENIKEA hotels are four-star properties, including the old President Hotel in front of the Seoul City Hall and the Crown Hotel in Itaewon, and these hotels account for more than 40 percent of the 3,867 rooms provided by BENIKEA properties.
It's difficult to find BENIKEA logos in any hotel lobby, as the properties continue to rely on their own names rather than on a government-pushed brand that reads like a misspelled Italian restaurant. According to industry officials, nearly 90 percent of customers at BENIKEA hotels are locals, as foreign travelers continue to choose international brands.
``You really can't say that KTO has done a very good job of promoting the BENIKEA brand, which is just as anonymous as it was two years ago,'' said an official from a downtown Seoul hotel.
With BENIKEA hotels failing to matter, foreign budget hotels chains like Best Western International and IBIS are getting all the fun. The occupancy rate at the 10 Best Western hotels in Seoul have ranged around 90 percent so far this year, while the IBIS hotel in Myeongdong, downtown Seoul, has been maintaining close to 100 percent occupancy since late last year, industry officials said.