In 2017, 62 million passengers traveled by air through Incheon International Airport in South Korea’s Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ). By 2023, the Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) hopes to be the world’s third busiest airport, serving 93 million passengers per year.
That kind of acceleration won’t happen by accident; the airport, which is growing its customer base by an estimated 7.5 percent per year, is the hub of a sweeping multibillion-dollar development plan in the IFEZ that includes a critical mass of entertainment attractions and a planned cluster of integrated resorts (IRs) anchored by foreigners-only casinos.
Paradise City is the only casino up and running in Incheon at the moment, but it will soon be joined by the $700 million Caesars Korea, due to open in 2021, followed by Mohegan Sun’s $4 billion Inspire resort, a multiyear project that will open Phase I in 2022. According to GGRAsia, two other resorts are on the regional drawing board: the Solaire Ocean Resort on Muui Island, from Philippines-based Bloomberry Resorts Corp.; and Dream Island, from pachinko operator Maruhan Co Ltd., a Japanese firm.
The timing couldn’t be better for South Korea, which may benefit from boosting its entertainment zone at least a few years before Japan launches a legal integrated resort industry. Most analysts say the first Japanese IRs will likely open after 2025, though Osaka has declared its intention to open an IR by 2024, just before the opening of the sixth-month World Expo on Yumeshima Island.
Bloomberry’s and Maruhan’s plans do not contain gaming at this time, and though Japan is almost sure to go head-to-head for casino customers with Incheon, less than a two-hour flight away, it’s not all about gaming. Inspire, for example, will include a Paramount Pictures-branded theme park; a 15,000-seat “super-arena”; a private air terminal; indoor climate controlled water park and pool area; and the biggest hotel ballroom in the Incheon/Seoul area.
“This is a combination of integrated attractions that just doesn’t exist in market today,” says Mohegan Gaming CEO Mario Kontomerkos. “Inspire is the perfect catalyst to spark Incheon’s transformation into the industry’s next major entertainment hub.”
Not to be outdone, Steven Tight, Caesars’ president of international development, says Caesars Korea “will be the first and only internationally branded integrated resort in the region, (so) its debut will add a differentiated IR option.”
Nicholas Kim, IFEZ Authority project manager, told GGRAsia that about
US$6.5 billion in IR investment has already been locked down, but “US$3.5 billion more” is needed.
“Japan will be our biggest competitor in future,” with “about US$10 billion in investment,” said Kim. He added that any global operators who come up empty-handed in the first round of license bidding in Japan might consider Incheon a welcome alternative. He added that the IFEZ offers comparatively “lower land lease” and various tax breaks.
Meanwhile, the four casinos of Paradise Group, a joint venture of Paradise Co. and Japan’s Sega Sammy, including Paradise City Incheon, posted combined revenues of $56.4 million in November, a year-on-year increase of 31.6 percent. Table game revenues were up 35 percent year-on-year to just over $54 million. Gaming machines were down 7 percent to $3.29 million.
