China’s ban on group tours to Korea earlier this year devastated the local tourism market. But in the end, it may have been a blessing in disguise. Mike Laidman reports.




Report

In October of this year Jeju had a mere 1.11 million international visitors.

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International arrivals down 64.7% as of October

That’s a drop of 64.7 percent compared with October of 2016.

The number of visiting Chinese tourists has plunged ever since China’s travel ban on Korea for the deployment of THAAD on the peninsula.

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Jeju’s tourism industry diversifying

However, Jeju’s tourism industry has been ramping up its efforts to diversify its portfolio, which had until very recently relied heavily on Chinese traffic.

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The number of the regular international flights linking Jeju Island to other cities has expanded to include 10 routes to 6 countries, up from 6 routes to 4 countries.

Philippine Airlines began a flight to Jeju, and Air Asia has launched flights between the Philippines and Malaysia this year.
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Korean Air and T’way Air recently launched a Jeju-Japan route, with the number of incoming Japanese tourists starting to rebound for the first time in five years.

INTERVIEW
Kim Nam-jin / Provincial tourism marketing dept.
The number of incoming Japanese tourists had been down for five years straight. This year, it’s on the upswing.
<인터뷰:김남진 제주도 관광마케팅담당>
"일본 시장이 5년간 계속해서 급격한 감소 추세가 있던것을 금년에 비로소 증가추세로 반전시켜놨습니다. 현재 계속적인 성장 모멘텀을 타고 있고요..."

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The number of irregular flights also increased this year, from 10 routes to 5 countries, to 21 routes to 10, including Vietnam and Indonesia.

Jeju is now welcoming more visitors from Southeast Asia than ever before.
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Province pursuing more aggressive promotion

Jeju is gearing up for an expansion of direct international flights and more aggressive promotion as a tourist destination.

It is also coming up with measures to improve low-quality packaged tours and solve the prevalence of unauthorized tour offices.

INTERVIEW
Kim Nam-jin / Provincial tourism marketing dept.
To prevent issues like low-quality group tours, the province will start supporting programs with proven tourist satisfaction. It will also work to attract more individual tourists.
<인터뷰:김남진 제주도 관광마케팅담당>
"저가 단체관광 반복되는 문제점이 발생하지 않도록 우수상품을 지원하는 체계도 구축하고, 개별관광객 활성화 시키는 노력도 하고..."

The local tourism industry is diversifying its portfolio and bouncing back after the tourism shock from earlier this year.

[Reporter] Mike Laidman
[Camera] Park Byeong-joon

More Chinese tourists are expected in Jeju beginning early in 2018, and so along with other new efforts, Jeju must work to build and maintain demand for satisfactory international group tours.

Mike Laidman, KCTV