'High1 Resort'

New CI for Kangwon Land to spur its diversification project to expand non-casino businesses

Kangwon Land, the nation's top resort complex deep in the hilly region of Gangwon Province, sharing the military demarcation line with North Korea, has declared its new corporate identity 'High1 Resort'on June 28, its 9th anniversary.
The new CI for the entertainment resort represents casino, hotels, High 1 country club, High1 Ski, and High1 Theme Park, signaling that the complex that started in 2000 with a casino and a special class hotel has now kicked off its second phase of development plan to upgrade it to a first-class family resort complex on a par with the best of such resorts in the world.
President Cho Ki-song of Kangwon Land said the new CI is line with the resort's strategy to find new growth engines in the non-casino areas and the brand represented by Kangwon Land is a casino brand, not consistent with the new strategy. He said the resort plans to raise the income from the non-casino sector to 50-50 with the casino operation from 8-2 in favor of the casino operation by 2015.
Kangwon Land has earmarked 42.5 billion won in funds to be invested in the new facilities projected in the new venture. The new venture will include a kids land, lego land, flower garden, a special water park, in addition to fitness and yoga facilities, along with a spa some 3,300 square meters big. Leisure facilities will be built taking advantage of the area's natural scenic beauties.
Also in the plan are the construction of off-road facilities for off-road activities around the 80-kn long old coal transportation road such as horseback riding, mountain bike riding, trekking, cross country race and other mountain leisure-sports, resort officials said.
The resort is prepared to launch new businesses, also, such as game contents development, management of game portals and knowledge-based businesses. It has already hired two experts to draw up plans for the new business areas that the resort could be operating.
They said the concept of casino resorts has changed with the laps of time, taking Singapore as a sample. Singapore is known for its strict Confucian ethics. If people leave cigarette butts on streets, they are fined, but the city state will invest some 7 trillion won to build a casino resort complex for opening by 2009. The Singaporean government said the project is for the next generation of its citizens to live off of it, quoting what former prime minister Lee Kuan-yew said.
The biggest function for a casino resort is attracting a large number of people to the extent that it is called, 'flower of the tourism industry.'People are drawn to gambling due to their nature for amusements. In Korea, many people consider facilitating conventions is one of the most lucrative futuristic business, but to attract the conventioneers, casino operation is needed. Las Vegas and Sun City in South Africa are gambling resorts where the convention industry is thriving.
President Cho also said Kangwon Land may build and operate a casino resort some where in Asia, adding that he will prepare the basic work before his tenure of office is up. Cho is new to the casino operation. His long career included president of LG Electronics USA, Vice President of LG Philips, and head executive officer for the TCL Thompson Electronics in China, before coming to Kangwon Land He said he is an expert for restructuring as he oversaw the restructuring of Zenith, which was acquired by LG Electronics and LG Philips, a joint venture between LG Electronics and the Philips of the Netherlands.
Cho came to Kangwon Land in March, 2006, as the first professional CEO and he has launched reform from the first day he arrived. He said the resort complex did not look good when he first came there. Its sales and profit were falling since its opening. So he kicked off a campaign to cut expenses. The company did not have a system to control its budgets because its been growing so fast. The result is the resort has been able to save 60 billion won in expenses last year.
The company's annual sales came near to 1 trillion won, but it didn't have the enterprise resources plan(ERP) and the CEO plans to set up one, along with the standard office manual.
He also worked hard to improve the management-labor relations. For the first time, last year, the resort was able to conclude the salary negotiations with the union peacefully
The reform pushed by the resort has been paying dividends.
According to 'Career,'a professional magazine for career seekers, said its survey showed Kangwon Land listed among the top 10 companies that people wanted to work and ranked 6th on the list of the private companies preferred by job seekers. The addition of ski slopes and condos have been drawing family visitors in droves. High school students alone that visited the resort in groups totaled over 10,000 in the first half and the number is expected to top 20,000 at the end of the year, resort officials said. nw

President Cho Ki-song of Kangwon Land

Kangwon Land's main casino hotel