Chinese tour groups start returning to Korea

A street in the shopping area of Myeong-dong in downtown Seoul is crowded with local and foreign visitors, Sunday. Yonhap

By Lee Hae-rin

Korea is expecting a large-scale return of Chinese travelers, as China announced the lifting of its ban on group tours to Korea last week after more than six years of economic sanctions. The sudden surge in interest is a promising development for the tourism industry, which has been severely impacted by the sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and the tourism industry, Sunday, as soon as the Chinese government announcing the end to its ban on group tours to Korea last Thursday, requests started coming in for cruise ships departing from Shanghai to dock at the southern resort island of Jeju. Fifty-three such requests were made on Thursday and Friday, with the first ships arriving on Friday.

The sudden influx of docking requests has led to an early closure of applications for sea routes between the two countries until March next year.

Chinese tourists enter Incheon International Ferry Terminal, Saturday. Ferries between Korea and China resumed operations starting Friday, as the Chinese government lifted its ban on group tours to Korea, Thursday. Yonhap

Chinese tourists historically have played a significant role in Korean tourism, particularly for Jeju Island where cruise ships served as the main avenue for Chinese visits. In 2016, Jeju Island marked a record high in cruise tourism with 1.2 million yearly visitors, mostly Chinese nationals who accounted for 85 percent of the 3.6 million total foreign visitors to the island.

However, the figure dropped dramatically to 825,261 in 2017, the year China enacted the sanction, which is believed to be a retaliatory measure against Korea's deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). The number fell further due to the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping to 9,891 in 2022.

The island has been struggling to fully recover, with only 132,545 Chinese visitors arriving by July this year. The slight recovery is due to the partial reopening of Korea-China sea travel routes via car ferry services in March and a gradual increase in individual travelers from China.

Flights departing from China arrive at Jeju International Airport, Friday, a day after China lifted its ban on group tours to Korea following more than six years of sanctions. Yonhap

Preparing for return

To greet the return of Chinese travelers, Korea's local travel authorities and industry are making active preparations.

The Jeju Tourism Organization (JTO) is working with airlines and the aviation industries of both countries to increase the direct flights between Korea and China.

Currently, there are 77 weekly flights directly connecting six Chinese cities to Jeju Island. The JTO aims to facilitate the entry of Chinese travelers into the island by expanding the air routes to 157 direct weekly flights with 17 cities by the end of this year and increase it further to over 200 direct flights a week connecting 18 cities next year.

Hotels and resorts are also gearing up for the influx. The Grand Hyatt within the Jeju Dream Tower installed ordering systems in foreign languages including traditional and simplified Chinese at 14 of its bars and restaurants and expanded their operating hours in preparation for the return of Chinese visitors.

"The resumption of Chinese group tours and subsequent increase in the international flights (between China and Korea) … are expected to create a major drive in sales increase at hotels, restaurants, casino and shopping malls at the Jeju Dream Tower," an official at the integrated resort told The Korea Times, Sunday, adding that the resort plans to recruit 400 additional casino workers.

Busan Metropolitan City and the Busan Tourism Organization (BTO) will launch a special promotion of the port city's foreigner-only Visit Busan Pass starting from Wednesday via China's largest online travel agency Ctrip and global travel platform Trip.com.

Travelers from China arrive at Incheon International Airport, Sunday, three days after the Chinese government lifted its ban on group tours to Korea last Thursday. Yonhap

It is estimated every million Chinese tourists visiting Korea could drive up Korea's rate of economic growth by 0.08 percent points, according to a February report on the Bank of Korea (BOK) on the domestic economic effects of China's reopening.

Also, if Korea's inbound tourism recovers at the same rate as Japan's, the country could see a 0.12 percent point growth effect in one year, another BOK report from July said.

Korea has been relatively slower than Japan in post-pandemic inbound tourism recovery. Japan saw a recovery of about 67 percent of foreign visitors from pre-pandemic levels from April 2019, while Korea stood at only 54 percent, mainly due to lack of Chinese tour groups.

During the first half of this year, 546,393 Chinese tourists visited Korea, which is only 19.5 percent of the 2.8 million from a similar period before the pandemic, according to data from the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO).

Preliminary estimates from the BOK shows that around 1.97 million Chinese tourists will visit Korea this year.