Hotel Spotlight The following interview with Holger Hirle, General Manager of the Imperial Palace, was conducted by the Senior Editor of the Korea IT Times ... Ed. Q; Firstly, could you please tell our readers some of the excellent new features and facilities of the Imperial Palace Hotel in comparison with similar business hotels in Gangnam area, Seoul Well, the most important thing is that we are different to the other hotels, starting from the facade and entrance of the hotel. It certainly reflects the name of the hotel and our name awareness that we are in the process of creating after our name change from the Amiga Hotel. Of course what also is different is the interior of the hotel with its huge number of sculptures and antiques. I might mention the chairman has an antique dealing business that he inherited from his father. Our wedding halls in the convention center are also proving very popular as they are very ornate and beautiful. Q: What are your plans for attracting more tourists and Seoul residents to your hotel in the upcoming summer season Why would they choose your hotel above your more well-established competitors in the luxury hotel category We are not part of an international hotel chain, so we use an international reservation and marketing company to promote our hotel. Our hotel can offer tourists a real Korean experience though, such as our Executive Floor lounge. This of course is very popular with businessmen, who are our main clientele and with Japanese tourists, Korean Americans and so forth. We are happy to be running at 80 percent occupancy at the moment. Our Japanese, Chinese and Italian restaurants are proving to be very popular and we have a poolside buffet, and we have as a special promotion summer beer garden near the poolside too, which we also rent out for functions. We are also opening a terrace garden under the front entrance, which will be a popular summer attraction. Q: What's your opinion on the outlook of Korea's hotel industry this year generally and particularly Imperial Palace's plans to rise to meet these challenges A problem we have with attracting more tourists goes back to the Korea National Tourism Organization (KNTO), which in our opinion is not doing enough to promote Korea as a tourist destination, compared with other Asian countries like Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and India. Q: What are Imperial Palace's special plans to boost revenues through promotional activities, raising reservation rates as well as function attraction enlargement and so on Our convention center is also attracting some good business and we will be hosting the International Jaycees when they meet in Seoul in November. I believe staff training is very important and we are trying to make our staffs aware of the importance of communicating effectively with our international guests, so we believe strongly in the importance of good English skills. Q: Could you tell us a little about your personal experience and background in the hotel industry and what innovations you are able to offer Well, I am of course German and that is where I was trained in the hotel industry. Before this I was with the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul. Besides Korea, I was in London, Belgium Melbourne and Singapore.