Universal Studios to build $3.1 billion S.Korea park

By Kim Soyoung

SEOUL (Reuters) - Universal Studios and its partners will build a 2.9 trillion won ($3.1 billion) theme park in South Korea by 2012, its largest project in terms of investment size, as it seeks to expand in Asia's burgeoning entertainment market.

The theme park, spanning 4.7 million square meters (50.59 million sq ft) and featuring hotels, golf courses and rides based on popular movies and TV shows, would be similar in scale to the Universal Orlando Resort in Florida in the United States.

"This is certainly going to be much larger than the other projects that have been announced," Frank Stanek, who spearheaded the development of Tokyo Disneyland and is in charge of developing Universal Studios Korea, told a news conference.

"We have a lot more strength behind this project, a lot more experience."

The park, in Hwaseong City in Gyeonggi province, about 30 km (18.5 miles) southwest of the capital Seoul, is expected to draw 10 million people annually from South Korea, China and Southeast Asia, said Kim Moon-soo, governor of Gyeonggi province.

Universal opened its first Asian park in Japan's Osaka in 2001 as it sought to tap Asia's theme park industry, which accounts for nearly half of the global $23.5 billion market but is largely controlled by local companies,

It is also developing two other parks Singapore's Sentosa Island and the Gulf emirate of Dubai.

South Korea, whose homegrown theme parks have generated $1.2 billion in annual ticket sales according to Euromonitor, has also attracted interest from Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), with both announcing plans this year to build resort parks.