JEJU-DO < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

The number of foreign tourists to the southern resort island of Jeju surpassed the 1 million mark last year for the first time in five years, data showed Tuesday.

Out of a tentative total of 13,783,911 people who visited Jeju last year, 1,907,608, or 13.8 percent, were foreigners, according to the Jeju Tourism Association.

The number of foreign tourists peaked at over 3.6 million in 2016 before dropping to the 1 million level in 2017 amid China's ban on group tours over South Korea's hosting of a U.S. missile defense system.

The number dropped further after the outbreak of COVID-19 to around 210,000 in 2020, 48,000 in 2021 and 86,000 in 2022 before rebounding slightly to 709,000 in 2023.

Chinese tourists accounted for the largest share of foreign tourists to Jeju from January to November last year, numbering 1,304,359, or 68.4 percent of the total, followed by Taiwanese at 149,518.

The association attributed the rise to an increase in the number of flights and cruises linking Jeju to other countries, particularly in the greater China region.

Last year, international cruises docked at Jeju 274 times, bringing some 641,000 foreign tourists to the island, up from 77 times in 2023.

There were also 152 weekly direct flights connecting Jeju to 15 foreign cities, including 12 in China, as of last month.

"We expect the upward trend of foreign tourists to continue as we see more international cruises stopping over at Jeju and more direct flights connecting Jeju to other countries," a Jeju Tourism Organization official said.


sookim@yna.co.kr

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Source: Yonhap News (January 7, 2025)