Featured Image Credit: Peter Charlesworth / Contributor / Getty
The hype surrounding the world's first floating hotel quickly turned to chaos, with the wild story of the Hotel Haegumgang involving cyclones, murders, underwater mines, and claims that it was cursed. While the Hotel Haegumgang has since closed its doors, its legacy lives on in the realms of dark tourism. Even though there are fears that Saudi Arabia's Abraj Kudai will never open as the world's largest hotel, its own grim fate was long preceded by the unfortunate tale of the Four Seasons Barrier Reef Resort.
As the original name suggested, the Four Seasons Barrier Reef Resort was supposed to make the most of tourism at Australia's Great Barrier Reef, meaning its location in the shallow John Brewer Reef (70 kilometres northeast of Queensland's Townsville) seemed like the perfect spot.
As reported by El País, Townsville local Doug Tarca dreamed up the idea of the world's first 'flotel' and set about building it when he was granted a unique conditional permit from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) in 1985.
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Boasting seven floors, 200 rooms (20 below sea level), a helipad, a tennis court, and more, the Four Seasons Barrier Reef Resort had grand ambitions. Things went 'swimmingly' for a while, and when the Four Seasons Barrier Reef Resort opened in 1988, it got national media attention for being the first of its kind.
Unfortunately, there was controversy over the fact that its anchoring had destroyed a considerable amount of the reef people were there to see, coupled with a disastrous cyclone that wiped out the helipad and left the underwater rooms in an unfit state.
Wanting out, Tarca managed to sell the Four Seasons to a Japanese company, despite the discovery of over 100,000 pieces of World War II artillery and anti-tank mines sitting directly beneath the structure.
The new owners shipped the hotel to Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City harbor and renamed it the Saigon Floating Hotel, as it enjoyed several years of great success and high occupancy rates.
This is where the so-called 'curse' reared its head again, and with a boom in competition, the Saigon Floating Hotel closed in 1996 and was towed out into the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Only car manufacturer Hyundai was interested in the aging structure this time around, but once again renamed and relocated after being bought for $18 million, the Hotel Haegumgang welcomed visitors in North Korea's Mount Kumgang Tourist Region.
There was a period of relative peace between 2000 and 2008 for the Hotel Haegumgang, until an incident where a South Korean woman was shot dead by a North Korean soldier in the region led to operations in the region being suspended.
Even though it's unclear whether the Hotel Haegumgang returned to service, rumors suggest it could've hosted members of the Workers' Party of Korea.
Kim Jong Un visited Mount Kumgang in 2019 and criticized facilities like the Hotel Haegumgang while marking it for demolition. The COVID-19 pandemic put those plans on hold, but after satellite imagery picked up activity in February 2022, the whole thing was gone by March that year.
After crossing three countries, two seas, and 14,000 km, it was a somewhat sad end for the Four Seasons Barrier Reef Resort/Saigon Floating Hotel/Hotel Haegumgang.
As one final hurrah, the last update included South Korean companies and the Ministry of Unification attempting to sue the North Korean government for 'illegal use and destruction of property' involving the world's first floating hotel.
