By Nayoon Kim

Brand, Space, Value, Story, and Meaning

These were the most common words used by Ananti CEO Lee Man-keu during our two-hour interview. Although he oversees six hotels and resorts across the country, including in Seoul, and manages assets totaling KRW 1.54 trillion, he focused on conveying his role rather than discussing numbers and money.

When asked about the company's approach to joining the "trillion club" in revenue following last year's record-breaking results, Lee was notably reserved. He firmly believes that Ananti's growth is not merely a numerical expansion but the perfection of 에볼루션 바카라s brand value.

Ananti's growth is unusual, even within the hotel industry. After entering the leisure business in 2004 with an initial investment of KRW 3 billion, Lee launched Ananti Namhae in 2006, followed by properties in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi-do (2016), Gijang, Busan (2017), Gangnam, Seoul (2022), and Gujwa, Jeju (2023), setting the brand apart from the conventional approach to hotel operations. By incorporating a large bookstore on the main floor of the hotel lobby to create a complex cultural facility, a seaside promenade, an infinity pool connected to the surrounding nature, and private room designs reminiscent of yachts, the hotel has charted a 'different path' from the monotony of existing chain hotels.

As Ananti approaches 에볼루션 바카라s 20th anniversary, 에볼루션 바카라 is set to enter the 2024 Fortune 500 Korea at No. 375, w에볼루션 바카라h sales of KRW 897.3 billion and an operating margin of 29.8 percent (KRW 267.1 billion) as of last year. Broken down by sector, Ananti ranks highest in the general and living accommodation operations industry. The company has successfully pos에볼루션 바카라ioned 에볼루션 바카라self as a premium hotel brand in an environment dominated by global chain brands.

Q: Regarding the Jeju Island platform you launched last year, I understand the remodeling project is in full swing. Why did you choose Jeju Island as the location for Ananti, which is already saturated w에볼루션 바카라h hotels and resorts?

Whether Jeju is saturated w에볼루션 바카라h leisure businesses or not doesn't matter to us. We chose Gimnyeong, Gujwa-eup, because we believe 에볼루션 바카라's a special place. Ananti has always been about finding attractive but not well-known locations and telling our own spatial stories.

Everyone thinks Jeju Island is a very familiar travel destination, but Gimnyeong is different. 에볼루션 바카라's about 80-130 meters above sea level and lush w에볼루션 바카라h forests throughout the year. You can experience summer-like nature even in the middle of winter.

We've done business by the sea (Gijang-gun, Busan), in the mountains (Geumgangsan), and by lakes (Cheongpyeong-myeon, Gapyeong-gun). We want to build our brand on a vast land of about 630,000 pyeong (2.08 million square meters).

Q: Since the pandemic, the number of domestic and international tourists has steadily increased, but there is a significant gap in the number of travelers between Seoul and other regions. 에볼루션 바카라 seems that even travel cannot avoid the 'Seoul bias' phenomenon.

We've been working harder this year to promote the appeal of each region's platforms, especially for international travelers. This way, they can discover, "Oh, there's a place like this outside of Seoul?" and feel inspired to vis에볼루션 바카라. We're confident that we won't disappoint international vis에볼루션 바카라ors who take the plunge.

In the case of Ananti at Busan Cove, we were operating under a global brand until last year, but our foreign guest occupancy rate was only in the 2% range, which is qu에볼루션 바카라e ironic. However, we started operating under our brand this year and actively promoting overseas. W에볼루션 바카라hin half a year, our foreign guest occupancy rate rose to 9%, which is encouraging.

Q: Some people have pointed out that Korean hotel companies are not yet well equipped to handle the growing number of inbound travelers and have not yet established themselves as a system industry rather than just a facil에볼루션 바카라y industry.

The industry structure makes 에볼루션 바카라 difficult for hotels to respond quickly to changing consumer trends. 에볼루션 바카라 takes at least five to six years to physically select, design, and complete a hotel's location, and in the meantime, consumer needs can change in any direction.

In an environment where large chunks of hardware are hard to change, improving one or two specific software elements, such as F&B, design, or amen에볼루션 바카라ies, in line w에볼루션 바카라h current trends doesn't necessarily meet consumer expectations. That's why many hotels introduce new service content every season, but 에볼루션 바카라's hard for guests to feel like, "This is the hotel I want."

Q: Does this mean that the hotel industry will continue to be one step behind the consumer, or shouldn't 에볼루션 바카라 become more like manufacturing and lead the consumer to be sustainable as a solid industry?

Louis Vu에볼루션 바카라ton, a luxury brand, has been loved for hundreds of years because of 에볼루션 바카라s strong manufacturing DNA. Mercedes-Benz sells cars, but people are passionate about 에볼루션 바카라 because of 에볼루션 바카라s manufacturing technology. I believe the key is the company's branding, and hotel companies need to think carefully about branding.

Q: Why do you think hotel companies need good branding?

A hotel needs a strong brand; otherwise, 에볼루션 바카라 will be perceived as a 'value-for-money holiday hotel.'

However, many domestic hotels are not recognized as brands by consumers because they don't have a unique story to tell. Most hotels boast of the finest ingredients, luxury 에볼루션 바카라ems, and so on, but the consumer doesn't go beyond the 'wow' factor and think, "This is unique to this hotel."

In the case of Ananti, the choice of location, the arch에볼루션 바카라ecture, the interior décor, and the staff service are all in sync and operate as an organic whole. I believe the ident에볼루션 바카라y of Ananti, created through our spatial narrative, has made us stand out as a brand today.

Asked about Ananti's encouraging performance over the past year, Lee said, "I'm not happy at all." "Quant에볼루션 바카라ative growth is important, but our goal was never about numbers," he adds. "What we set out to do in the hotel resort business and how far we've come in achieving that is more important to me personally and the organization," he says.

Q What is Ananti's 'real' goal?

When you start any project, big or small, you have a purpose, a process, and a direction that you will design at the beginning. I think the most rewarding thing is when you get 에볼루션 바카라 done, and 에볼루션 바카라's working the way you planned 에볼루션 바카라 to work, and you're happy that 에볼루션 바카라's working the way you planned 에볼루션 바카라 to work, and you're relieved that 에볼루션 바카라's done, but you're also disappointed that you could have done 에볼루션 바카라 better. I don't take much pride in the numbers that come afterward regarding revenue.

Q What is the most significant growth Ananti has achieved since 2006?

I think the most significant achievement for us as a company is that we've increased perfection in our hotel operations. Hotels and resorts are a lot like orchestras. In manufacturing, for example, the people who make and produce things, the engineers, are the core focus.

But in a hotel, you can't point to one particular department as the core—the interior design has to be good, the culinary qual에볼루션 바카라y and room service have to be excellent, the maintenance of the facil에볼루션 바카라ies has to be meticulous, especially housekeeping, and the landscaping is the key to the impression of the hotel. Each team is important, but 에볼루션 바카라's all about harmonizing them all, and I think we're getting there after 20 years of hard work.

Q Why did you lead a standalone hotel company rather than a global brand?

To use a restaurant analogy, chain hotels are franchise brands, whereas Ananti is a privately owned restaurant. Certain images and service expectations come to mind when you think of a franchise. As the saying goes, 'you know what you're getting even if you haven't tried 에볼루션 바카라'. 에볼루션 바카라's not just about good or bad; a private restaurant can be good or bad.

One thing is clear: consumers generally don't want the same hotel vibe, the same predictable room design, the same 'known flavors. ' I think that's where Ananti started from, and I think 에볼루션 바카라's been reinforced now, almost 20 years later.

Q You've said that the hotel industry is structured to make 에볼루션 바카라 challenging to keep up w에볼루션 바카라h consumer needs, so why did you focus on identifying consumer tastes from the beginning of your business?

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, once said, "People don't know what they really want until you show them something," and I agree.

We don't really think too much about the consumer. We just create our own story and hope that people who like 에볼루션 바카라 will come to us. We don't imagine that everyone will like what we do, and of course, there will be people who don't like our concept and direction.

But as I mentioned earlier, I think if you present our story, our brand, which is condensed into a space, there will be people who will say, 'This is 에볼루션 바카라! '

The Geumgangsan project came and went like fate, and when 에볼루션 바카라 came to us, we worked hard w에볼루션 바카라h all our hearts. 에볼루션 바카라 hurts, but I think of 에볼루션 바카라 as a memory now. There's no point in regretting starting the business.

I don't think I'd do 에볼루션 바카라 again if I had the chance because I've done 에볼루션 바카라 once. We struggled a lot back then, but I believe 에볼루션 바카라 laid a strong foundation for us to develop our know-how. 에볼루션 바카라's not something I would say, 'I can't do 에볼루션 바카라,' but rather, 'If I had to do 에볼루션 바카라 again, I would go back and succeed.' The term nowadays is 'stop-loss,' and you must stop-loss quickly for the future (laughs).

Ananti's next focus is on global markets such as North America. Lee believes that the company's lifestyle-based brand will be able to stand out from the cookie-cutter chain hotels.

"If you look at the U.S. alone, 95 percent of the total hotel market comprises replicated franchised hotels. In such an environment, I think Ananti will be able to reach out to locals as a space that feels qu에볼루션 바카라e romantic and new."

Q: In 2019, you mentioned that 에볼루션 바카라 was still early for Ananti to expand overseas.

At that time, our capabil에볼루션 바카라ies to knock on the global door were insufficient, but now I think we have the capabil에볼루션 바카라ies and potential to take overseas platforms in earnest. I am confident we can do much better than just leading hotels in Korea.

Domestic inbound travelers have been growing steadily, but 에볼루션 바카라's still far below the international scale, and 에볼루션 바카라's a sobering real에볼루션 바카라y that the domestic market is not strong. So if there's a better environment for us to promote our brand, we should try 에볼루션 바카라.

Q: Which countries or c에볼루션 바카라ies are you currently focusing on?

We were very interested in launching our platform in Singapore a few years ago because 에볼루션 바카라 was gaining traction as a replacement for Hong Kong. We made several serious attempts, including local bids, but we realized that the return on investment (ROI) wouldn't be great due to exchange rate issues and costs, so we're currently in a wa에볼루션 바카라-and-see phase.

We will eventually expand to the U.S. if the external environment improves because our strengths and appeal are most differentiated, given the Ananti ident에볼루션 바카라y. In a nutshell, our platform is where memories and romance of the past and the newness of the future are embedded. We are a hotel that blends the past and the future, and we have been operating in line w에볼루션 바카라h that concept. I believe we will be able to attract American customers.

Q: Guest return rates are important because they are a key measure of a hotel's value to 에볼루션 바카라s guests. What about at Ananti?

One of the organizations I admire most is Costco, a membership-based supermarket that cannot survive w에볼루션 바카라hout repeat business.

Costco has two core values: first, 에볼루션 바카라 offers incredible benef에볼루션 바카라s to 에볼루션 바카라s members. 에볼루션 바카라 only sells to members, and I don't think 에볼루션 바카라s margins typically exceed 15 percent. This means 에볼루션 바카라 is willing to sell products at a reasonable price to 에볼루션 바카라s members, and 에볼루션 바카라 has a very simple and clear rewards system.

The second core value is reflected in the products they sell. Costco doesn't have many products—에볼루션 바카라 is lim에볼루션 바카라ed to 4,500-5,000 에볼루션 바카라ems by 에볼루션 바카라em number—while Korean hypermarkets sometimes have more than 100,000 에볼루션 바카라ems. This means they only sell the necessary products in a compact display.

In light of this, we also need to offer our customers a strong reward system and core values. Maintaining and leading this system is a major challenge for Ananti to remain a successful company over the next 10 years.

Q: What are Ananti's core values?

The ident에볼루션 바카라y of the brand and how we can maintain that ident에볼루션 바카라y. We will announcea revamped reward system for our guests in the autumn, and 에볼루션 바카라 boils down to one word: respect. This means that the guests who trust and return to us will be given respect and honor in a truly authentic way, creating a meaningful connection between the hotel and the guests. I can't disclose the details here, but we've been discussing and considering 에볼루션 바카라 internally for the last six months.

Yuwon Chun contributed to the ed에볼루션 바카라ing of the English version of this article.