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The domestic hotel industry, which had expected high demand during the World Cup, received a blow Friday when Byrom, the official FIFA accomodation agency, canceled some 70% of bookings with the event one month away. KOWOC announced Friday the accommodation agency made reservations at 217 hotels nationwide in September last year for 796,158 room-nights (room x nights), but has canceled nearly 70% of them or 562,899 as of April 30.
Region wise Seoul saw its room-nights decreased from 334,670 to 147,097, followed by Busan from 104,399 to 17,934, Seogwipo from 107,313 to 19,601, and Ulsan from 76,404 to 13,498. Byrom booked a large number of rooms in September, right before the final draw for the 2002 World Cup, said KOWOC business division manager Kang Seong-il, adding the agency made four cancellations at the end of October and December last year and on April 1 and April 30 this year.
Kang explained the reason for the cancellations was the prevailing atmosphere of unwillingness to make long trips influenced by the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US. He added that Byrom will not pay any penalties as its contract stipulates the right to cancel up to 30 days before the reservation is due.
For this reason, hotels are looking to attract more guests to fill up vacancies during the World Cup as for example Busan's Lotte Hotel has only some 23% of rooms reserved by Byrom confirmed.
(Kim Hak-chan, chani@chosun.com )
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