Two Five-Star Hotels Set to Open in Suwon by Next Year

Gyeonggi Province's Suwon City, which has long suffered from the handicap of being a "day-trip destination" due to insufficient hotels for domestic and international tourists, will see two five-star hotels with over 230 rooms each built by next year.

According to Suwon City on the 24th, the former Kim's Club in Ingye-dong, Paldal-gu, will be remodeled into an 'Ibis Hotel' and is set to open this December.

Once the hotel is completed, it will become a Class 2 five-star hotel with 238 rooms, the most in Suwon.

At the same time, construction of a new Class 2 five-star 'Best Western Hotel' with 233 rooms is underway across from Dongsuwon Hospital.

The Best Western Hotel, which has completed all excavation work and is currently undergoing structural work, is scheduled to finish construction and open in the second half of next year.

Additionally, two motels in Youngtong-dong, Youngtong-gu, are pursuing conversion to Class 1 tourist hotels with a total of 160 rooms.

If these hotels open smoothly, by the end of next year Suwon City will have a total of 10 hotels (with a combined 988 rooms), including the existing six tourist hotels (with a combined 357 rooms).

Suwon City, which welcomed 3.29 million domestic and international tourists last year, sees increasing tourist numbers each year, but the shortage of hotel rooms means that only 20 percent of tourists stay overnight in Suwon, with the rest choosing hotels in Seoul.

In response, Suwon City is making all-out efforts to expand tourist hotels by providing administrative convenience for new tourist hotel construction and actively promoting the conversion of mid to low-range motels into tourist hotels.

With a goal of securing 1,500 rooms, Suwon City plans to provide various conveniences in the business plan approval and registration procedures for hotel construction.

The city has also decided to actively support the conversion of mid to low-range hotels to tourist hotels, which requires only simple requirements such as equipping at least 30 rooms and establishing service systems for foreign guests.

An official from Suwon City's Culture and Tourism Division said, "While hotels in Seoul sometimes have vacant rooms, Suwon's hotels are fully booked on both weekdays and weekends, indicating strong room demand," and added, "We will secure more hotels in the future so that tourists visiting Suwon can stay overnight and spend more money."