Choi Moon-soon, governor of Gangwon Province, unveiled critical plans for the upcoming PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics in providing all pertinent information such as accommodation, food, transportation and cultural events be all easily accessible via the Olympics Information Call Center (without area code, 1330) during a press conference held on Monday.

The Olympics Information Call Center will join hands with Korea Tourism Organization‘s calling number ’1330‘ and provide assistance in Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese, starting from late November to March 2018. It is said that 19 to 23 call center operators will be on stand-by to help those in need of assistance related to the Olympics.

With just 70 days left ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, Gangwon Province vowed to push ahead to alleviate the accommodation problem. Gov. Choi Moon-soon’s first priority is to actualize policies regarding accommodation prices‘ stabilization by expanding the number of bookable rooms in the region that are reasonably priced.

In order to expand the number of bookable facilities available to Olympic Games’ visitors, the number of rooms bookable at good quality facilities, such as large-scale hotels and resorts, will be promoted first such that general visitors can make reservations early on.

It is currently estimated that there are 44 large-scale facilities and 15,322 rooms that are a 1-hour journey the Olympic Games events, but most run on a ‘members-only’ policy. Visitors can only reserve a room at these places 30 days prior to their intended stay. 

Recent negotiating talks between Gangwon Province and hotels and resorts have successfully ended in mutual agreement to provide 4,904 bookable rooms in 17 facilities, starting from December. Furthermore, Gangwon Province plans on future negotiating talks with 27 facilities under Daemyung and Hanhwa Resort to vitalize both early reservations for the 10,418 rooms and the overall region during the Winter Olympics.

Because most large-scale hotels are located in a nearby city of PyeongChang, a free shuttle bus will be provided for visitors‘ convenience in going back-and-forth from the Olympics events to the hotels and resorts.

To observe an increase in early reservations for hotel accommodations, Gangwon Province and Booking.com plan on holding a joint press conference, explaining the details regarding activating the reservation system.

Moreover, to stabilize prices in accommodation during the Winter Olympics, Gangwon Province plans on encouraging hotels to participate in rational pricing policies by providing firm guidance and inspection on price information.

In efforts to prohibit any facilities from overcharging visitors, a call center for those wanting to make a report regarding accommodation, prices such as overcharging practices, will be in place. Visitors can call the following numbers: 1330, 033-249-3186, 033-660-3023, 033-330-2303. Follow-up investigations will be strictly enforced. Those found to be guilty of overcharging practices will be excluded from any support the Gangwon Province provides during the Winter Olympics. Also, a full-on tax report investigation will be conducted on those businesses.

A special safety inspection on all 1,404 facilities in PyeongChang and nearby cities will be routinely carried through in order to eradicate any unreasonable pricing in business operations, starting from December to the end of PyeongChang Olympics.

On top of issuing facilities’ owners reasonable room pricing information, the policies will help accommodations avoid any empty rooms during the Olympics and provide visitors with accurate, reasonable room pricing and transportation.

Gov. Choi also predicted that with the opening of high-speed KTX train service, which connects the gateway city of Incheon to Gangwon Province via Seoul within an hour, will result in an increase in room prices in Seoul if the cost of a room in PyeongChang remains high.

Most importantly, Gov. Choi also vowed to make Gangwon Province a year-round tourist spot.

By Catherine Chung (cec82@heraldcorp.com)