More than 1.86 million Chinese tourists visited Jeju in the first eight months of this year, already exceeding the full-year total for last year.
Eight Months Surpass All of Last Year
According to Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and the Jeju Tourism Organization on the 20th, about 1.86 million Chinese tourists visited the island from January through August. That is more than 270,000 above the 1,588,107 who came during all of last year, and the fact that eight months have outpaced 12 months is being read as a sign that China's outbound tourism is tilting more heavily toward Jeju.
Last year, Chinese visitors accounted for 70.2% of the 2,242,187 foreign tourists who came to Jeju. This year, the eight-month figure is more than 17% higher than the full-year total for last year, indicating that the pace of growth has steepened.
Arrivals by sea have also grown. Some 383,000 Chinese tourists entered Jeju by cruise ship through the end of August, or 20.6% of all Chinese visitors — roughly one in five.
Safety Raised at Meeting With Ambassador
Against this backdrop, Jeju Governor Wi Sung-gon met Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Dai Bing at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul on the afternoon of the 17th to discuss cooperation between Jeju and China in the economy, tourism and renewable energy.
Tourist safety was also raised at the meeting. Dai said Jeju is well known in China and asked for continued attention to ensuring that Chinese tourists can travel safely.
Still, some note that the rapid recovery of the Chinese tourism market is not entirely welcome news. Chinese visitors made up 70.2% of foreign tourists to Jeju last year, and the broader Greater China share, including Taiwan and Hong Kong, exceeded 83%.
Whether Jeju can expand exchanges with China while reducing its dependence on a single market is expected to be the key test for its inbound tourism and external economic strategy going forward.
Separately, footage of Udo — an islet off Jeju lined with signs in which Chinese lettering is larger than Korean — drew attention after it was posted on a YouTube channel. In the video, some merchants said it is hard to make a living on Udo without Chinese customers, and added that they wished Koreans would take as much interest in Jeju as foreigners do.
