Korea’s Jeju Dream Tower IR ramps efforts to accommodate Mainland visitors, seeks 500 new staff

Jeju Dream tower prepares for travel policy changes in Beijing, seeks to augment 2,200-strong workforce; arrivals from China up by more than 5,000% amidst resumption of group-tours abroad; South Korea top destination.

Original story by GGRAsia.com

The Jeju Dream Tower resort on Jeju island, South Korea, is looking for 500 extra workers, 400 of them for the foreigner-only casino (pictured) at the complex, and 100 for hotel operations.

Currently the resort has 2,200 staff, of whom presently 600 are working in the casino department. The recruitment drive would up the total workforce to 2,700.

The hiring process started on Sunday (August 13), said the resort’s operator, Lotte Tour Development Co Ltd, in a statement shared with GGRAsia.

The firm said additionally in a Tuesday email to GGRAsia in response to an enquiry, that a factor in the recruitment effort had been a recent decision by China’s government to permit again its citizens to take part in group tour travel to South Korea and other destinations in the region and further afield. Such trade had been suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The resort representative indicated the current number of flights between Jeju and China was around 57 percent of that in pre-pandemic trading. Jeju Dream Tower’s management expects flight connections to improve soon following China’s policy move.

Jeju Dream Tower’s July sales at its foreigner-only casino were a monthly record since the time the gaming facility was opened in June 2021. A Lotte Tour filing to the Korea Exchange regarding the July numbers, did not provide a breakdown of the place of origin of its casino’s foreign customers.

According to Jeju Tourism Organization data, the number of Chinese travellers to Jeju market-wide in June was 35,907, up 5,617.7 percent year-on-year, from only 628 in June 2022, a time when China still had in place outbound and inbound travel restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was more than half of the June tally for foreign arrivals to the island.

South Korea is one of the top destinations of Chinese tourists. With the recent announcement of the Chinese government that group tours are to resume, SoKor airline and travel stocks went soaring, with the likes of travel agency Lotte Tour Development seeing a 25% spike in shares.

The number of all foreign travelers to Jeju in June this year was 64,019, up by 1,038.7 percent year-on-year, from 5,622 in June 2022.

Read the article as it originally appeared on the GGRAsia Website at https://www.ggrasia.com/jeju-dream-tower-seeks-500-staff-as-chinese-return-to-jeju/