38°43′33″N 128°12′20″E / 38.7258767°N 128.2054575°E
| Hotel Haegumgang | |
|---|---|
 Hotel Haegumgang (then Saigon Floating Hotel) in Ho Chi Minh City, 1991 | |
| Former names | Four Seasons Barrier Reef Resort John Brewer Floating Hotel Saigon Floating Hotel |
| General information | |
| Location | John Brewer Reef (1998) Ho Chi Minh City (1999–1998) Mount Kumgang (1998–2022) |
| Opened | 9 March 1988 |
| Closed | July 2008 |
| Demolished | March 2022 |
| Height | 24.2 m (79 ft) |
| Dimensions | |
| Diameter | 89.2 m × 27.6 m (293 ft × 91 ft) |
| Weight | 10,960 tonnes |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 7 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Sten Sjöstrand |
| Developer | Doug Tarca |
| Structural engineer | Consafe Engineering |
| Main contractor | Betlehem Singapore Pty. Ltd. |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 140[a] |
| Number of suites | 34[a] |
| Number of restaurants | 2[a] |
The Hotel Haegumgang (Korean: 호텔해금강), originally the Four Seasons Barrier Reef Resort, was the world's first floating hotel.[1][2][3][4][5] Originally designed to exploit the tourism potential of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Four Seasons Barrier Reef Resort opened on 9 March 1988 and was initially situated in the shallow John Brewer Reef, 70 kilometres (43 miles) northeast of Townsville.
The floating hotel quickly proved to be economically unviable, attributed to frequent bad weather, its remote location, and a series of incidents that undermined public confidence. In April 1989, the hotel was purchased by EIE International and relocated to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, where it became the city's first five-star hotel and a commercial success. Renamed the Saigon Floating Hotel, the floating hotel was open in Ho Chi Minh City from November 1989 to August 1996. Once more running into financial troubles, the hotel was purchased by Hyundai Asan in 1998. Hyundai Asan relocated the hotel to the Mount Kumgang Tourist Region in North Korea and renamed it to the Hotel Haegumgang. Part of an effort to sustain large-scale tourism projects in North Korea during a thaw in bilateral relations with South Korea, Hotel Haegumgang was open from October 2000 until Hyundai Asan suspended operations in July 2008.
After being shut down, the Hotel Haegumgang remained docked at Mount Kumgang. It is unclear whether it was used by the North Koreans during this time. The hotel was demolished by the North Korean government on the orders of Kim Jong Un in March 2022.
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- ^ Cascino, Carmelo; Arini, Francesca (2021). "Floating Architecture and Conversion of Offshore Structures: A Chronicle of Knud E. Hansen Designs". WCFS2020: Proceedings of the Second World Conference on Floating Solutions, Rotterdam. Springer Nature. pp. 81–98. ISBN 978-981-16-2256-4.
- ^ Prisco, Jacopo (22 August 2022). "Hotel Haegumgang: The sad and surprising story of North Korea's floating hotel". CNN. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
- ^ Shelton, Tracey (24 October 2019). "Australia's world-first floating hotel in dire straits as Kim Jong-un seeks renovations". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
- ^ "Floating Vietnam nightspot languishes in North Korean port". Thanh Nien News. 29 September 2014. Archived from the original on 19 January 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
- ^ Smith, Carl (14 June 2018). "The bizarre story of Australia's floating hotel and its 14,000km round journey to North Korea". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 18 Jun 2018. Retrieved 24 June 2018.