Aiming to provide a taste of Korean culture to foreign travellers and improve the city’s image, a luxury hotel chain under South Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Group will be constructed near a historic heritage site in Seoul.
Samsung Group won approval on Thursday from the Seoul Metropolitan Government to build a hotel themed on a traditional Korean house, or hanok, in central Seoul, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
The three-story building with 91 rooms, known as a long-cherished project pushed by Lee Boo-jin, president of Hotel Shilla and eldest daughter of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, will be built next to its flagship hotel nestled at the top of a hill with a view of Namsan Park, becoming the first hanok hotel in the capital city.
Hotel Shilla said it will showcase the traditional lifestyle in a modern setting to attract travelers who want to get the hands-on experience of Korean culture.
The hotel said it will break ground next year with the goal of opening in early 2020, expecting 300 billion won (US$246.2 million) in investment.
“It is expected to attract travelers not only from Asia but also from the West, as hanok has emerged as a latest trend in accommodations with an eco-friendly design in tune with nature,” Moon Seok-jun, a public relations official at Hotel Shilla, said.
The company won the approval in its fifth attempt after cutting down the number of rooms and revising the building’s design to better suit the nearby area, where expansion or new construction are restricted for preservation purposes.
It is located near the Fortress Wall of Seoul, a 600-year-old stone wall that the local government has pushed for including on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Hotel Shilla said it will make a public park, walking trail and parking space for tour buses near the hotel to connect tour programs to the historic site.
