Kangwon Land Inc’s new CEO pledges to make resort part of a regional tourism offering

Kangwon Land Inc’s newly-appointed chief executive, Kim Do-gyun (pictured), says the resort operator – the only business in South Korea allowed to offer casino gambling to locals – will speed a move to make the Kangwon Land site part of a comprehensive tourism offer linked to other local attractions. “As we approach our 30th anniversary, we will… create a decisive turning point to upgrade the future of Kangwon Land and the former coal-mining region,” Mr Kim was quoted as saying at his inauguration ceremony on Wednesday, attended by 300 employees. Mr Kim pledged to accelerate the resort’s ‘K-HIT’ project aimed at refreshing its facilities and marketing, tying the latter to nearby tourism assets including local forests and what the firm terms “coal-mining heritage tourism”. The company has been developing tourism packages connecting its complex – known as High1 Resort, in Jeongseon – with nearby destinations. The K-HIT project has been described previously as involving KRW3.00 trillion (US$2.21 billion), in investment. Mr Kim was also cited as saying his company would pursue regulatory reform as it seeks to become a “global public integrated resort”. Kangwon Land Inc faces – along with commercial casino operators in the country – possible changes to casino regulation, including a potential rise in contributions to the country’s Tourism Promotion and Development Fund. Last year Kangwon Land Inc paid US$427 million in public dues, more than South Korea’s 17 foreigner-only casinos combined. The new CEO was indirectly cited as saying that – in terms of social protection – the company would work on enhancing an artificial intelligence-based ‘gambling-addiction prevention system’. Mr Kim – a former army officer – had been confirmed in the CEO role after an extraordinary meeting of shareholders on August 26. Several interim CEOs had been in place consecutively, prior to Mr Kim’s appointment. He is the firm’s 11th CEO since the company’s founding in 1998, according to a Wednesday announcement. The main casino and hotel facilities opened in 2003. The locals casino was set up under the ‘Special Act on the Assistance to the Development of Abandoned Mine Areas’, a law passed in 1995. Under that law, it contributes up to 13 percent of its annual casino revenue to an Abandoned Mine Fund. The resort is in a remote upland area of Gangwon Province, approximately 150 kilometres (93.2 miles) east of the South Korean capital, Seoul.