It has now been a year since the provincial government suspended Jeju’s visa waiver program due to Covid-19.

As a result, the number of international arrivals has decreased by more than 90 percent. Local businesses including duty free shops and casinos have been hit hard.

Joseph Kim reports.

Report


This is a terminal of the Jeju International Airport.
It’s empty and quiet.
Notices of “Flights suspended” are placed here and there.

Since the visa waiver program was suspended to minimize entry of COVID-19 infected arrivals to the island, the airport has become noticeably uncrowded.


All of the flights between Jeju and China that had connected about 150 times a week and flights to Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia have been halted.
This directly impacts local businesses including shops on one of the island’s popular shopping streets, (누웨마루) Nuwemaru.

Chinese tourists who had filled the street are now rarely spotted.
Many shops have been closed as they cannot make ends meet for the decreased number of shoppers.

According to the Provincial Tourism Association, the number of international visitors has dropped by one fifth, compared with the number when international arrivals enjoyed the visa waiver program and visitors reached one million a year.


Korean tourists have replaced international visitors, but a nosedive in sales is unavoidable.

Duty free shops and casinos are on the brink of extinction.

Lotte and Shilla duty free shops have been closed since June, and have partially opened since the end of last year, but few sales are made.

Casino businesses for non-Koreans are also in danger.

Vaccines are planned to be delivered and distributed from this month at the earliest. But countries have different vaccination schedules and virus variants are spreading globally, so it’s unclear when international tourists will be able to freely enter the island again.

Joseph Kim, KCTV