JEJU-DO < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

The number of cruise visitors to Jeju increased more than sixfold over one year.

According to the January edition of the "Jeju Tourism Market Trends Report" released by the Jeju Tourism Organization on February 10th, the number of cruise visitors to Jeju in 2024 reached 640,183, a 6.4-fold increase compared to 100,109 visitors in 2023.

The organization explained that the increase was driven by the resumption of Chinese cruise tourism to South Korea in March last year, which had been suspended since the COVID-19 pandemic.

In fact, the number of cruise calls to Jeju surged to 279 in 2023, nearly four times the 70 calls in the previous year.

By port, Gangjeong Port, which accommodates large cruise ships over 10 tons, recorded 143 calls, while Jeju Port, which handles smaller cruise ships under 10 tons, saw 136 calls.

Of the total cruise passengers, 441,069 visitors (68.9%) arrived via Gangjeong Port, while 199,114 visitors entered through Jeju Port.

Jeju’s cruise tourism peaked in 2016 with 1,209,160 visitors from 507 cruise calls, but suffered a severe downturn due to the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) dispute in March 2017, which halted all Chinese cruise routes, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Looking ahead, Jeju expects more than 800,000 foreign cruise tourists to visit the island this year.

As of February 6, the number of scheduled cruise calls to Jeju for this year stands at 345, a 23.6% increase from last year.

dragon.me@yna.co.kr

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Source: Yonhap News (February 10, 2025)