Universal Studios South Korea



Universal Studios South Korea is a future theme park to be constructed in the vicinity of Seoul, South Korea. The park would become the sixth Universal Studios theme park in the world, and the fourth in Asia, after Universal Studios Japan and the future Universal Studios Dubailand and Universal Studios Singapore, upon its projected opening in 2013. The park will be constructed by a consortium including Universal Parks and Resorts, USKOR and Associates and POSCO Engineering

Development history
Universal Studios South Korea was first announced on May 22, 2007 by Frank P. Stanek, the president of USKOR and Associates. While the announcement confirmed that they intended to construct a park in the country, USKOR declined to elaborate on other major details, such as a location and a construction budget, although local officials in the Gyeonggi-do province state that Ansan and Pyeongtaek are among the candidates to host the park. On November 27, 2007 Universal Parks & Resorts announced that the park will be constructed in Hwaseong, located south of Seoul and also near Incheon International Airport, and has been allotted a budget of USD $3.1 billion.

The selection of South Korea for another theme park was based on many factors. Thomas L. Williams, president of Universal Parks and Resorts, specifically mentioned the country's strong economic growth and its love of American movies. He also noted that approximately half of South Korea's population lived near Seoul. The nation's proximity to China was not lost on the development team. Stanek said, "What we are hoping to do is to bring in a world class attraction not only for the Korean people but to draw tourism to this country."

The provincial governor, Kim Moon-su, estimates that Universal Studios South Korea could generate 2.9 trillion won (USD $3.2 billion) in foreign investment, 190 million won per year in tax revenues and 60,000 new jobs.

In January 2010, developers of the Universal Studios theme park and resort in South Korea said the project is slated to open in early 2014 after being delayed by the global financial crisis. Plans for Universal Studios Korea Resort, billed as the largest such Universal project in Asia, were originally announced in May 2007 amid hopes it would be up and running in 2012. Kim Moon-soo, governor of Gyeonggi province, where the resort is set to be built, blamed the worldwide financial meltdown for the delay, but said the large-scale project is back on track. Construction is scheduled to start at the beginning of next year, according to a release.

"Our Universal Studios in Korea is bigger than all the other studios combined," Kim said at a press event, referring to theme parks already operating in Orlando, Florida and Universal City, California in the United States, Osaka, Japan and another slated to open soon in Singapore. "This will be a remarkable landmark in terms of tourism in Korea," he said.

A total of 15 partners are participating in the development, including South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group and builder Posco E&C. They signed a framework agreement Tuesday to raise capital for the 3 trillion won ($2.7 billion) project expected to attract 15 million visitors a year in South Korea and from abroad.

Park design
No specifics on the layout or attraction lineup were mentioned during the May 2007 press conference, although both USKOR and Universal suggested that the future park might be larger than both Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Japan. The park will most likely include popular attractions from its sister parks, such as those based on Spider-Man, King Kong, Jurassic Park, and E.T.,Shrek.

It was noted, however, that the park would be influenced not only by American movie icons, but those of the South Korean film industry, as well.

Competition
Universal Studios South Korea will be entering a competitive market, with both established theme parks and others future projects announced by rival studios. The day before the park was made public, MGM had announced plans for a future park in Shanghai, China, which itself was unveiled after Viacom subsidiary Paramount Pictures announced it was exploring the potential for its own theme park near Seoul. Each of these parks would be going up against two popular local parks, Everland and Lotte World. Everland hosted 7.5 million guests in 2006, ranking it fourth in Asia behind the two Tokyo Disney Resort parks and Universal Studios Japan, while Lotte World attracted 5.5 million guests to land in fifth place.