Lotte Tour Development Co Ltd will officially open its long-awaited US$1.4 billion integrated resort, Jeju Dream Tower, today after receiving final approvals for its 1,600-suite hotel.
According to Jeju Sori, Jeju Dream Tower’s Grand Hyatt hotel has now been registered as a tourist accommodation business under the Tourism Promotion Act and Jeju Tourism Promotion Ordinance, which applies to hotels with 30 rooms or more and includes certain requirements on facilities as well as provisions on foreign ownership and use rights for the land and buildings.
Lotte Tour revealed late last month that it had begun taking reservations for guests to stay in its hotel starting from 18 December 2020.
The tallest building in Jeju at 38 floors or 169 meters high, Jeju Dream Tower will feature a retail mall, 14 restaurants and bars, an outdoor pool deck, top floor skydeck with lounge, two spas and a hotel upon opening, although there is no casino on site just yet.
Lotte Tour plans to apply to relocate its current foreigner-only casino from the Lotte Hotel Jeju pending completion of a Casino Impact Study Assessment and approval form local authorities. The relocation would expand the current gaming space by almost five times to more than 5,000 square meters and see its five gaming tables and 51 machines rise to 150 tables and 300 machines.
The opening of Jeju Dream Tower comes some 40 years after the 75-acre site upon which it sits was first purchased by Lotte Tour predecessor Dongwha Investment and Development Co Ltd in 1980. Excavation work began in 1984 but was halted due to lack of funding. The project was eventually resurrected in 2008 and construction resumed in May 2016 following alterations to the design.
