Korean casinos gain from weak won
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The weak Korean won brought an increase in the number of Japanese to the country’s casinos and hotels last month, the Korea Herald has reported.
According to Grand Korea Leisure Co, which operates two casinos in Seoul and one in Busan, the number of Japanese has nearly doubled from a year earlier. The casino operator, an affiliate the state-run Korea Tourism Organization, saw a record 67,242 Japanese customers in February – a 98% year-on-year increase. Of the total number of foreign customers, 64% were Japanese, it added.
A Japanese yen has gained nearly 50% against the South Korean currency so far this year, the report stated, allowing Japanese to spend more despite the economic contraction in Japan.
“We saw a record KRW43 billion (US$28.9 million) in sales in January. We think with this speed of sales growth, we will be able to achieve annual sales of KRW380 billion. But we are not sure how long the value of the yen will stay as high as it is now,” Chung Gun-sik, spokesperson for Grand Korea Leisure was quoted saying.
The decline was particularly sharp in the final part of 2008 as the credit crunch started to bite, the figures from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) showed.
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