Lotte Tour Development Gains Attention as a 'Reopening Leader'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] Recently, Lotte Tour Development's stock has been attracting attention as a ‘reopening leader stock’.

As of 3:13 PM on the 28th, Lotte Tour Development's stock price is trading at 14,500 KRW, up 5.05% from the previous day.

This sharp rise appears to reflect expectations for travel stocks, casino stocks, and related sectors following the Chinese government's decision to lift overseas entry restrictions after three years.

Lotte Tour Development is a comprehensive tourism leisure company equipped with representative tourism sectors such as casinos, travel, and hotels, which are considered beneficiaries of the reopening. Among the ‘reopening beneficiary stocks,’ it has shown the highest rate of increase, continuing its ‘upward momentum’ for the second day.

Since June, when Jeju’s overseas direct flight routes resumed after about two years, the number of foreign tourists has significantly increased, which has also been a major factor in the upward trend.

As of last month, the number of foreign guests staying at accommodations increased more than fourfold compared to the previous year.

Additionally, Lotte Tour Development has operated exclusive charter flights to attract casino VIP customers. So far, it has flown once to Japan and seven times to Hong Kong, with one more flight to Japan scheduled by the end of the year.

As a result, last month, the number of visitors to Dream Tower Casino surpassed 10,000 (13,105) for the first time since its opening, raising expectations for a full-scale turnaround. This figure is nearly three times that of the same period last year. The drop amount (money exchanged for gaming) also soared, leading to a clear improvement in performance.

In particular, Lotte Tour Development recently launched the largest domestic special charter cruise travel product in 3 years and 8 months. Scheduled for two trips in June next year, the product departs from Sokcho to major Japanese port cities such as Aomori and Otaru (starting at 1.98 million KRW per person). With both air and sea routes opening, a turnaround is anticipated in the new year.

Since operating the first domestic charter cruise in September 2010, Lotte Tour Development has established itself as a dominant leader in the cruise industry, successfully attracting about 45,400 customers over 42 voyages until before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, its high-priced premium travel products, launched with differentiated competitiveness in luxury tourism, are gaining popularity.

On the 18th, a Swiss business package (6 nights and 8 days) priced at 8.49 million KRW per person (including various taxes) sold through Lotte Home Shopping received 4,832 calls (1,933 orders) within 60 minutes, generating approximately 42 billion KRW in sales.

Lotte Tour Development has risen as a leading comprehensive tourism leisure company by not only operating Lotte Tour (travel division) with a 50-year tradition but also opening Jeju Dream Tower Complex Resort (resort division), Korea’s first urban complex resort, in December 2020.

Dream Tower houses the ‘Grand Hyatt Jeju,’ which has the largest number of rooms (1,600) among single hotels in Korea, 14 restaurants, the ‘Dream Tower Casino,’ and the ‘Han Collection’ K-fashion mall.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.