Cruise ship to serve as floating hotel for Pyeongchang Olympics guests

By Park Sae-jin Posted : February 6, 2017, 15:43 Updated : February 6, 2017, 15:43

A cruise ship is docked at Busan Port. [Yonhap Photo]



A luxury cruise ship will serve as a floating hotel to accommodate foreign visitors during next year's Winter Olympics in South Korea's eastern ski resort of Pyeongchang, provincial government officials said Monday.

The province of Gangwon disclosed the idea of chartering or purchasing a 40,000-ton cruise ship that would be docked in the eastern port city of Sockcho to accommodate guests when Pyeongchang hosts the Games from February 9 to 25.

Sockcho, a beach resort known for a national park covering Mount Seorak, is close to the inter-Korean border and also to Olympic sites in Pyeongchang and Gangneung. Construction of a tourist terminal is under way in the port. Separately, the port hopes to attract Chinese, Russian and Japanese visitors aboard foreign cruise ships from February 1 to early March.

Gangwon officials said they have benchmarked the successful operation of cruise ships by Sochi, a Russian summer beach resort and host of the 2014 Winter Olympics. The trend of using cruise ships for Olympics accommodations was established with earlier games in Sydney, Athens, and London.

 
기사 이미지 확대 보기
닫기