Luxury hotels and conveniently-located wedding halls are highly popular among the soon-to-be married couples in South Korea while conventional wedding venues are facing deepening management crises amid declining marriages.

According to data from the National Tax Service on Sunday, the number of wedding venues that are open stood at 733 at the end of last year, down 29 percent from 2017.

The primary reason behind this decline is the reduction in marriages, which stood at the 190,000 range in 2022, down from 260,000 in 2017.

Some major hotels in downtown Seoul, on the other hand, are enjoying a prosperous period, with wedding bookings already closed for this year.

“This year’s reservation rates for weekends and Friday evenings are already at 80-90 percent,” said an official from a luxury hotel in Seoul. “Apart from off-peak hours or occasional cancellations, reservations are fully booked for the entire year.”

Hotels like Shilla, Lotte, and Walkerhill have always been fully booked during peak season, but the trend has accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lotte Hotel Seoul saw nearly double the number of wedding bookings last year compared to 2018. The price of a wedding at a major five-star hotel starts in the tens of millions of won.

The usage fee for a wedding venue at a top-notch hotel in Seoul can reach close to 100 million won ($75,000) based on the service for 400 guests.

According to Shilla Seoul, wedding packages start from the mid-90 million won range for basic options and can go up to 250 million won depending on various options such as flower decorations and meals.

Last year, Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul launched a large-scale outdoor swimming pool wedding package for about 300 million won based on 150 guests.

There are moves in the hotel industry to expand wedding products.

Since its opening in 2017, Seoul Dragon City Hotel in Yongsan, central Seoul, has increased its wedding products four times.

Even during the pandemic in 2021, the venue introduced outdoor terrace weddings (for 200 guests) and high-rise weddings on the 31st floor (for 150 guests), and in 2022, it added a small dome-shaped banquet hall, increasing the capacity for weddings to 370 guests.

Seoul Dragon City has already seen a 30 percent increase in reserved weddings this year compared to the previous year, up by 2.4 times from 2018. “Wedding demand has increased since the pandemic, and to strengthen our position in the wedding market, we have introduced new wedding venues and products,” said a hotel official.

By Park Hong-ju and Minu Kim

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]