Hanwha Hotels & Resorts Partners with Pororo and Minions

Active Character Partnership Marketing

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Cha] Hanwha Hotels & Resorts is expanding character partnership marketing across all its business sectors, including aquariums, resorts, and hotels.

According to industry sources on the 10th, Jeju Hanwha Aqua Planet opened the "Minions Jeju Special Exhibition" on the 31st of last month, featuring Disney animations "Despicable Me" and "Minions." This exhibition, held for the first time in Jeju, recreates scenes from the animations in the real world and offers various content such as over 100 types of merchandise, artwork depicting the characters' creation process, interviews with creators, and life-sized photo zones.

Since 2015, Hanwha Resort has been operating "Pororo" rooms and water parks targeting family customers. Pororo rooms are available at Geoje Belvedere, Gyeongju, Daecheon Pharos, Seorak Sorano, Yongin Bezanson, and Saipan World Resort. As of last year, the occupancy rate of these rooms is about 20 percentage points higher than that of standard rooms. The water park "Pororo Aqua Village" located in Gyeongju is also popular among family customers.

Additionally, since 2014, Plaza Hotel has collaborated with the Teddy Bear Museum to offer "Plaza Teddy Bear" dolls, which have sold out every year. The sales proceeds are donated to Compassion, an international child care organization, continuously supporting impoverished villages in Indonesia, fulfilling its role as a social enterprise.

According to the "Content Industry Trend Analysis Report" published by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), domestic character industry sales increased by 27.6%, from 9.052 trillion won in 2014 to 13.0165 trillion won in 2019.

A Hanwha Hotels & Resorts official stated, "We operate marketing teams by business sector to apply various characters appropriately and plan to continuously seek diverse collaborations that can develop character IP (intellectual property) beyond simple product partnerships."