Lotte Hotels & Resorts, Korea’s largest hospitality group, has merged its hotel division (Lotte Hotels) with its resort division (Lotte Resort) into a single entity.
The company will now have three divisions: hotel, duty-free and world. The merger was made to boost management efficiency and to raise hospitality competitiveness, the company reports. The merger of Lotte Hotels, which operates 29 hotels globally, and Lotte Resort, which operates three resorts and golf clubs in Korea, puts 11,000 rooms under the one division.
The new division has a total of five brands (Signiel, Lotte Hotels, Lotte City Hotels, L7 HOTELS and Lotte Resort). With the merger, it plans to launch new brands in the future, the company reports.
The company recently named Gustavo Sarago to the newly created role of chief development officer, Americas. Lotte currently owns and operates three hotels in the Americas: Lotte New York Palace, Lotte Hotel Seattle and Lotte Hotel Guam. Earlier this year, Lotte purchased a property in Chicago, which it is currently converting to L7—Lotte’s lifestyle brand. L7 Chicago is expected to open in 2023. Lotte Hotels & Resorts is targeting to grow its footprint by 25 properties over the next five years throughout the Americas.