ACCOR Ambassador Korea has opened its first ibis Styles property in Seoul to meet growing demand from leisure and business travellers.
The group already operates 15 properties in South Korea, including eight in the capital, but the 180-room ibis Styles Ambassador Seoul Myeong-dong is appealing to a younger clientele with a trendy interior themed on the movie industry, as well as a rooftop restaurant.
“Seoul is one of the top tourist destinations in Asia and a strategic market for us,” said Patrick Basset, Accor’s COO for Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines.
“We’re seeing solid growth in the number of guests staying in our hotels throughout the country amid strong demand for quality, yet affordable accommodation in Seoul.
“This hotel will cater well to the design-centric, tech-savvy crowd, which is one of the fastest-growing segments on the international hospitality scene,” he added.
The property also has a selection of meeting rooms, as well as a gym, sauna and dining options.
Accor Ambassador Korea is a joint venture between France’s Accor and Korean hotel company Ambassador, and it opened its first ibis Ambassador property in the Gangnam district in 2003.
Basset told the local media that all the joint venture’s properties have shown annual growth of 10 per cent every year since they opened. The company plans to increase its portfolio to 23 hotels by 2017, including Grand Mercure and Suite Novotel properties.
Myeong-dong has emerged as a popular location for hotels developing new properties, in part thanks to a surge in Chinese tourists, who comprised over 40 per cent of the record 14 million foreign visitors to South Korea in 2014.
