Jeju Dream Tower expands salesforce as VIP uptick expected
Lotte Tour Development Co says the Jeju Dream Tower casino will receive around 1,000 VIP gamblers from overseas this month.
South Korea.- Lotte Tour is expanding sales staff for its Jeju Dream Tower as it hopes to win more VIP business from Macau and Australia. The operator hired 20 casino industry workers specialising in overseas sales in May, including former executives from The Star Sydney.
It says it plans to hire 30 more sales managers after the full resumption of international flight services to Jeju Island.
Lotte Tour says it expects to receive around 1,000 overseas VIP players this month. According to GGRAsia, the players will arrive from Singapore. Lotte Tour Development Co Ltd said it has started working with nine junkets with the aim of attracting new clients from other countries in the region.
Lawrence Teo, chief operating officer, said southeast Asian junket operators have been turning to South Korea while the junket business in Macau and Australia has declined. He added that Jeju’s casino business is “focusing on the visa-free tourist entry program and the region’s consumer interest in Korean pop culture.
In July, Jeju Dream Tower reported that gross gaming revenue was down 17.3 per cent from KRW18.5bn (US$14.5m) in the first quarter of the year to KRW15.3bn (US$11.8m) in the three months to June 30.
The company raised its third-quarter consolidated sales forecast to KRW90bn, which, if achieved, would be nearly 73 per cent higher than the second quarter. The casino operator estimated that casino GGR in the third quarter would be KRW36bn, which would be up 135.3 per cent from the second quarter.
