Can North Korea beat the rest of the world in the race to create a luxury underwater hotel? It seems Kim Jong-un is pushing ahead with plans to transform the Democratic People’s Republic into a world-class tourist destination, with an underwater hotel the latest idea on the cards.
The hotel concept is part of a development project for the region around Wonsan, on the country’s east coast. The industrial port city of Wonsan would become the gateway to a major beach resort development on the nearby Kalma Peninsula, designed to lure international tourists.
Besides an underwater hotel, the 1400ha development would also feature an amusement park and flower park, according to The Pyongyang Times. The beach resort would cater to up to 100,000 visitors, the Times reported.
Wonsan is 200km from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, and is not far from another of Kim Jong-un’s celebrated tourist projects, the Masik Pass Ski Resort, which launched last year. The young leader has shown a fondness for expensive, high-profile leisure projects, with a massive new water park, an amusement park and a luxury horseback riding club among his portfolio of achievements and plans.
If the underwater hotel is completed in the near future, it could be the first of its kind in the world. For years, ambitious plans have been emerging and enticing would-be holiday-makers eager to sleep with the fishes, with potential destinations including Dubai, Fiji, China and even the Great Barrier Reef.
Although a handful of resorts around the world already offer limited underwater rooms and facilities, a grand-scale luxury underwater hotel remains elusive. Among plans around the world, the proposed Poseidon Undersea Resort, planned for a private island in Fiji, has been in the works since 2001. The much celebrated Hydropolis Hotel, which was mooted for Dubai, was originally slated to open in 2006.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
